10 BULLETIN U0O, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
LAGOONS 
The eastern half of the Province of Buenos Aires is dotted with 
shallow lagoons, many of them impregnated with salt, and there are 
millions of acres of rich virgin land rendered unfit for cultivation by 
standing water only a few inches in depth or by inundations that 
follow heavy rains. This accounts for the fact that the eastern half 
of the Province of Buenos Aires is so largely devoted to pastures for 
livestock, although the soil is fertile and there is abundant railway 
transportation to nearby ports. Among the larger lagoons is Mar 
Chiquita, in. the Province of Cordoba, and to the north is another 
area of about 250 square miles covered with lagoons and swamps. 
Another large area, 100 miles long by 50 miles wide, lies near the 
Saladillo River, between the cities of Santiago del Estero and Sala- 
vina. The lagoon Llancanalo, south of the River Atuel in Mendoza 
and La Pampa, is nearly 40 miles long by 10 or more miles wide. 
The lagoon Bebedero in San Luis, is really a marsh about 25 miles 
long by 18 miles wide, which sometimes almost dries up. It has solid 
deposits of salts, principally sulphate of soda, potassium, and mag- 
nesia. These salts are mined at certain seasons, with a production 
of about 5,000 tons per month. 
The largest alkali region of Argentina is found in Las Salinas 
Grandes, between the mountains of Cordoba and those of Cata- 
marca, a region which covers about 7,000 square miles. This depres- 
sion is only about 150 feet above sea level and is surrounded on all 
sides by higher elevations. It is a sterile, arid, desert region, covered 
with shallow water at rare intervals, which quickly evaporates leaving 
the soil covered with a coating of alkali. 
In the northwestern part of the Province of Corrientes, a short 
distance east of the Parana River and approximately 350 miles north 
of the city of Buenos Aires in an air line, is the &ran Laguna del 
Ibera. In places this lagoon is nearly 100 miles north and south and 
the same distance east and west, so that it probably covers about 
10,000 square miles. This great lagoon has never been thoroughly 
explored. It is in a semitropical region with a heavy annual rainfall, 
and the lagoon is full of floating islands and dense vegetation. 
UNDERGROUND WATER 
One of the problems of a large part of Argentina is that of obtaining 
pure water free from excessive quantities of salts and suitable for 
drinking purposes for man and beast. The first deep well was dug 
in Buenos Aires in 1861 to a depth of 958 feet. A few years later 
another deep well was dug near Beazley and water was not encoun- 
tered before reaching a depth of more than 3,000 feet. Through a 
large portion of the Pampa country good water is generally found at 
depths of from 100 to 500 feet, and often much nearer to the surface. 
Practically every house in the country towns of the Pampa region has 
its own well and windmill, and the large estates have a well, windmill, 
and tank for each subdivision of the estate. In portions of Chaco 
and Santiago del Estero to the north it is necessary to bring water 
in by train for use in the locomotives, for the population of the 
towns, and for the sawmills and other enterprises that use steam 
engines as a motive power. In the Provinces east of the Parana, 
where the geological formation is different from that of the Pampa, 
