IMMIGRANTS FROM EUROPE 263 



frontier the density falls to two in the San Justo 

 department, and still less further south, at Marcos 

 Juarez, Union and General Lopez. 



In 1914 the density was more than fifteen in the whole 

 of the maize area in the Buenos Aires and Santa Fe 

 provinces, and it approached this figure in the depart- 

 ments of the old agricultural colonies on the middle 

 Salado. In the region of the lucerne farms it was 

 three to five, except in the south-east (departments 

 of Veinte Cinco de Mayo, Nueve de Julio and Bolivia), 

 where it rose, thanks to the co-existence of ranches 

 and of wheat and maize. It sank to between two 

 and three in the wheat area in the south and south- 

 east of Buenos Aires. At Santa Fe the district of the 

 colonies had seven to the square kilometre. 



The growth of the population is partly explained 

 by immigration from Europe. Foreigners were, in 

 1914, 30 per cent, of the total population. 1 The pro- 

 portion of foreigners to the total population is one 

 of the indications by which we can best follow the 

 advance of colonization. As soon as it relaxes in 

 any region, the number of immigrants diminishes. 

 (The children born of foreign colonists in Argentina 

 are considered indigenous in Argentine statistics.) 

 In 1869 the proportion of foreigners rose to 417 per 

 1,000 in the province of Buenos Aires (without the 

 capital). This was the great period of pastoral colon- 

 ization and the development of sheep-breeding. It was 

 then only 156 per 1,000 at Santa Fe. In 1895 the 

 proportion of foreigners sank to 309 per 1,000 at 

 Buenos Aires, but rose to 419 at Santa Fe, where the 

 date almost marks the end of the great period of 

 agricultural colonization. In 1914 the proportion of 

 foreigners at Buenos Aires rose to 340 per 1,000 

 (development of the maize region and the southern 



1 All Europeans, except a few tens of thousands of Bolivians in 

 the Salta and Jujuy provinces, a few thousand Brazilians in Misiones, 

 and a few thousand Chileans at Neuquen, 



