228 



ROADS AND RAILWAYS 



Villa Mercedes. It thus has two outlets, to Buenos 

 Aires and Bahia Blanca, and completely encloses the 

 third sphere with its branches. The third sphere, 

 which comprises the centre and south of the Pampean 

 plain, is the domain of the Southern and Western 

 Companies. In 1912 these two companies asked the 

 Argentine Government to authorize them to amalga- 

 mate. Although they withdrew their proposal in 

 1914, in face of the conditions imposed upon them, 

 they are still closely associated. Part of the traffic 

 of the western lines of the Western passes over Southern 

 lines at Carbue, and is shipped at the port Ingeniero 

 White. At Buenos Aires also, and at La Plata, part 

 of the Western Company's traffic in cereals and cattle 

 uses the premises of the Southern Company. The 

 Western and the Southern, jointly, bought in 1908, 

 before it was finished, the narrow-gauge Midland of 

 Buenos Aires line at Carbue, which was to cross their 

 sphere of influence. It was opened in 1911. 



The importance of the transport of cereals in the 

 life of the leading Argentine systems will be seen from 

 the following figures. In percentages of the total of 

 goods carried, both from the interior to the ports and 

 vice versa, the tonnage of exported cereals was : 



The figures are rather less for the Southern, which 

 covers an area that has remained chiefly pastoral 

 and, by means of its Rio Negro line, serves for part 

 of the transport of cattle from Patagonia (cattle- 

 transport on the Southern, average for the years 1913, 



