120 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



" It will be seen that there is good business in the Chaco, for 

 the value of the timber covers both the initial cost of the land 

 and the expense of settling and stocking it with cattle. On 

 the other hand, settlers earn their profits under conditions 

 which are the reverse of tempting. The hard, uncompromising 

 nature of the quebracho itself gives the keynote to the whole 

 region. Over more than half the country the Indians, numbered 

 roughly at 20,000, are still sufficiently hostile to make it 

 necessary for exploiting parties to omit no precautions. 



" Nevertheless, the Chaco is being steadily invaded. As the 

 hardwoods are cut down the underbrush is fired, and its place, 

 is taken by coarse rushes and grass. This in its turn is replaced 

 by softer herbage, which follows on the hoofs of the pioneer 

 cattle herds. Six or eight years suffice to convert dense forest 

 la iK I into moderate pasture. At no very distant date the Chaco 

 will be shorn of its dreaded forests, and the cattle-raising in- 

 dustry, which is now but a means of feeding the lumber- 

 workers, will grow till the district becomes a reserve from which 

 the alfalfa camps of North Santa Fe will draw their supply of 

 horned stock for fattening. The present beginnings of this 

 trade are responsible for the scourge of ticks and tick fever 

 which infests the Santa Fe farms. The Chaco shares with 

 Corrientes the bad eminence of being the natural home of this 

 pest, and neglect of this and similar dangers to the pastoral 

 wealth of the Republic constitutes one of the gravest charges 

 against its rulers. 



" Let us turn our eyes elsewhere — to the foothills of the 

 Andes that he west of the pampas of Buenos Aires. The 

 moisture-bearing winds, which bring verdure by a thousand 

 rushing streams to the valleys of the Patagonian and pre- 

 Cordillera, are here diverted by the increasing height and 

 solidity of the great divide. North of Lake Nahuel Huapi, 

 the eastern slopes present for over 600 miles a barren and almost 

 rainless tract. It is true that the soil is fertile under irrigation, 

 but the patches which have so far been reclaimed, with the 

 help of the hill-streams, stand out as small oases in a barren 

 wilderness of sand, scrub, and rock. 



" This is the wine district of Argentina, and in the year 1900 

 it produced 125,076,954 litres. The industry is cbiefly^centred 



