AGEICULTURAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AMERICA 13 
Luis and San Juan. It includes many high elevations, is generally 
semiarid in character, has many inaccessible areas, deserts, alkali 
swamps, and generally a subtropical climate. Sugar cane, rice, 
tobacco, and fruits are grown under irrigation in Tucuman and north- 
ward, and wine grapes in San Juan and other limited sections. Most 
of the goats, burros, and mules of the Republic are found in this 
region. Agricultural development is limited by irrigation facilities, 
distance to markets, and high freight rates. It is, however, a region 
of great undeveloped mineral resources. 
PATAGONIA 
Patagonia is a regional name given to all that part of Argentina 
south of Rio Colorado, which is about 100 miles south of Bahia Blanca. 
It is triangular in shape, about 1,000 miles north and south, 450 miles 
wide at the north, and ends with the Argentine portion of Tierra del 
Fuego on the south. Except for the narrow strip of irrigated land 
along the Rio Negro and the wooded region of the south, it is gen- 
erally semiarid and suitable only for raising sheep and wool. 
CLIMATE 
Argentina, extending north and south through 33 degrees of lati- 
tude, equivalent to the distance between Labrador and Cuba, with 
altitudes ranging from sea level to more than 20,000 feet, has all 
kinds of climate — tropical in the north and cold in the south, humid 
in the extreme east and semiarid in the west. At the city of Buenos 
Aires near the ocean and about half way between the northern and 
southern limits of the country ice rarely forms, and citrus fruits, 
roses, and other tender plants continue to grow and bloom during 
the winter months. In the north, bananas, coffee, sugar cane, and 
cotton grow, citrus fruits extend as far south as the central portion 
of the Republic, and in the extreme south only grass and the hardy 
trees, shrubs, and plants survive the long, severe winters. 
Because of the great extension of flat, level, unobstructed areas 
to the east between the Antarctic Zone to the south and the Tropics 
to the north, the climate is characterized by the suddenness of its 
changes. The temperature depends mainly upon the direction of 
the wind. When the wind comes from the Tropics across the unob- 
structed Chaco and Pampa country the weather is warm in winter 
and excessively hot in summer. There are also extremes with respect 
to rainfall. Argentina has its dry and its wet years. It has happened 
several times that more rain has fallen in a single month of a wet 
year than during the entire 12 months of a dry year. Sometimes 
rains are very heavy but of short duration, so that a few hours' rain 
may inundate considerable areas of flat country. 
The longest continuous series of weather observations are for the 
city of Buenos Aires since 1857, Tucuman since 1868, Mendoza, San 
Juan and Cordoba since 1871, Rosario and Salta since 1881. The 
great majority of weather stations in Argentina are less than 25 
years old. 
TEMPERATURE 
Because of the difference in altitude, the isotherms, or lines of equal 
temperature, do not run straight across the country from east to west 
but describe great curves. Practically all the isotherms run nearly 
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