AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AMERICA 23 
has scattering blooms every month of the year. In cities and 
towns ivy, honeysuckle, and morning-glories are commonly grown 
on walls, fences and low buildings. 5 
ANIMAL LIFE 6 
When the Spanish explorers first came to Argentina they found it 
sparsely inhabited by tribes of Indians, the Guaranis in the north, 
the Quichuas in the north and center, the Araucanians in the south 
and west, and the Minuans in the country east of the Parana River. 
There were many smaller tribes forming part of or related to these 
four principal groups. These Indians lived by hunting and fishing. 
They had few or no domestic animals and little agriculture, except in 
the northwestern mountainous region, where small patches of corn, 
beans, and other vegetables were grown by the women. Their rude 
implements were of wood or stone and their weapons were bows and 
arrows, throw sticks, spears, and bolas. The number of Indians in 
the country has never been known, but has been estimated at from 
75,000 to 300,000. 
The Spanish colonizers brought domestic animals with them and 
under the exceptionally favorable conditions of climate, soil, and 
pasturage these multiplied rapidly, especially the cattle and horses, 
which nearly two centuries ago roamed the Pampas in countless numbers 
like the buffalo on the Plains of North America. 
Among the forms of animal life found in Argentina are three varieties 
of monkeys, the jaguar (Felis onca), several varieties of wildcats, the 
puma or panther (F. concolor), wolves, wild dogs, foxes, skunks, 
nutrias (Lutra paranensis) , many representatives of the opossum 
family, some of which carry their young in pouches, the guanaco, 
an animal related to the camel and llama (guanaco, alpaca, and 
vicuna), several species of deer, several wild pigs, two ant-eaters, a 
number of bats, and a great variety of rodents, including rats, mice, 
rabbits, the chinchilla (Eriomys chinchilla), valuable for its fur, the 
viscacha (Lagostomus trichodactylus) , destructive to meadows and 
crops, the carpincho (Hydrochoerus capybara), as large as a hog and 
similar in appearance, and various armadillos that are covered with 
jointed horny plates and are prized for eating. 
s For a more complete list of the grasses and forage plants of Argentina see the following: 
Buenos Aires (City) Museo nacional de historia natural. Anales . . . tomo XXIX. Buenos Aires, 
Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, 1917. 
Buenos Aires (City) Universidad nacional. Facultad de agronomia y veterinaria. Las plantas forrajeras 
indigenas y cultivadas de la Repbulica Argentina. Buenos Aires, Talleres S. A. Casa Jacobo Peuser, ltda., 
1923. 
Girola, C D. Investigation agricola en la Republica Argentina. Buenos Aires, Compania Sud- 
Americana de billetes de banco, 1904, pp. 70-79. Republica Argentina. Anales del Ministerio de agricul- 
tura. Section agricultura; botanica y agronomia. Agronomia. t.I, n 1. 
Holmberg, E. L. La flora de la Republica Argentina in Argentine Republic. Comision directiva del 
censo. Segundo censo de la Republica Argentina, mayo 10 de 1895. Buenos Aires, Taller tip. de la Peniten- 
ciaria nacional, 1898, t. I, quinta parte, pp. 385-474. 
Spegazzini, Carlos. Apuntas para un corto resumen de la flora agropecuaria de la Republica Argentina, 
in Argentine Republic. Comision del censo agropecuario. Tenso agropecuario nacional. La ganaderia 
y la agricultura en 1908. Monografias . . . t. III. Buenos Aires, Talleres de publicaciones de la Oficina 
meteorologica Argentina, 1909, pp. 467-497. 
6 Argentine Republic. Comision directiva del censo. Segundo censo de la Republica Argentina, mayo 
10 de 1895 . . . tomo I, Territorio. Buenos Aires, Taller tip. de la Penitenciaria nacional, 1898. 
Azara, Felix de. Viajes por la America meridional. Madrid, Calpe, 1923. t. 1-2. Viajes clasicos. 
Levene, Ricardo. Lecciones de historia Argentina. . . 7. ed., corr. Buenos Aires, J. Lajouane & cia, 
1923, t. I. 
Napp, Ricardo. La Republica Argentina obra escrita en aleman . . . con la ayuda de varios colabo- 
radores y por encargo del Comite central argentino para la Exposition en Filadelfia. Buenos Aires, 
Impreso por la sociedad anonirna, 1876. 
