266 THE POPULATION 



Periodic migrations with no definitive change of 

 residence are not given in the official statistics. The 

 importance of these migrations in northern Argentina 

 has been noted in the chapters we devoted to Tucuman 

 and the forestry industry. They occur also in the 

 Pampean region, where they are due chiefly to he 

 need of labour for the harvest and the threshing of 

 wheat and flax, and for reaping the maize. Miatello 

 has given us a detailed analysis of the phenomenon 

 for the province of Santa Fe in 1904. The period 

 when the wheat and flax growers need help is from 

 November to February. It begins in March for the 

 maize farmers, and lasts so much longer when the 

 harvest is good. The temporary immigrants come 

 partly from Europe. Not only is the stream of immi- 

 gration to Argentina fuller during the months which 

 precede the harvests, while the stream of re-emigration 

 to Europe is greatest in the autumn, but it is not a 

 rare thing for Italians to go every year to Argentina 

 merely to stay there during the harvest, when wages 

 are high. This seasonal immigration from Italy is of 

 long standing ; it is mentioned by Daireaux in 1889. 

 These foreigners, however, are only part of the 

 adventurous crowd enlisted for the harvests on the 

 Pampean plain. Seasonal migration is everywhere a 

 national practice. The labour employed in reaping 

 the maize includes elements borrowed from the towns 

 near the maize belt. But all the provinces round 

 the Pampean region send their contingent of tem- 

 porary immigrants. Some even come from the valley 

 of the Rio Negro at Bahia Blanca, from San Luis, 

 and even from Mendoza to the Central Pampa and 

 the Cordoba province. 



The oldest, and still the largest, stream is that 

 which comes from the Santiago province. D'Orbigny 

 notices in 1827 the temporary streaming of Santi- 

 aguenos to the coast. In that year slow progress 

 was made with the wheat-harvest of Buenos Aires 



