50 BULLETIN 1409, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The advantages of the region are a favorable climate, fertile soil, 
cheap land, cheap labor, and water transportation (the Pilcomayo, 
Bermejo, Parana, and Paraguay Kivers). At present there is an 
abundant supply of native and Indian labor, but any considerable 
increase in area and production will necessitate immigration. The 
disadvantages are the lack of cotton gins in some districts, lack of a 
ready and wide market (due in the past to the small quantity pro- 
duced), small proportion of cultivated land (probably less than 5 per 
cent, lack of forage for work animals, lack of labor familiar with 
cotton growing and picking, remoteness from centers of population 
and the fact that the land along the rivers and railroads is mostly 
held in large tracts by private owners; also the fact that the pink 
bollworm is widely distributed throughout the cotton region and the 
locusts often devour the young cotton, making replanting one or more 
times necessary. Both insects are serious pests. The boll weevil 
has not yet appeared in the cotton fields of Argentina, although it 
has been found in seed imported from the United States. 
Fig. 13.— Sugar-cane field and irrigation ditch, Province of Tucunian, Argentina, June, 1924 
In the western half of the northern third of the country the sec- 
tions suitable for growing cotton are generally limited to relatively 
small areas of irrigated land in the valleys and along the streams. 
As other crops, such as sugar cane, rice, wine grapes, and fruits, are all 
well established in these sections, and as they are widely scattered 
and remote from the ports, it does not seem probable that cotton 
growing will develop to any large extent in them by displacing other 
crops already established. 
Sugar Ca.ne 
The climate and soil of the northern third of Argentina are adapted 
to sugar-cane culture. Sugar cane has been <pown in portions of this 
region for more than a century, but has reached its greatest develop- 
ment since 1895. The industry is mainly concentrated in the irrigated 
section of the Province of Tucuman and to a much smaller extent in 
