southward from the limits of the central region, down to Tierra del Fuego.
The first region is characterised by a hot climate, with regular rains in the eastern parts; in the west the rainfall is less frequent. The central region enjoys a temperate climate; there, as in the northern region, the rains are regularly distributed in the eastern parts, but are very rare in the west, which is subject to long periods of drought. In the southern region the rains are less frequent and the climate is more severe, with the exception of the west and the extreme south, which are also in a rainy belt.
After long experience a kind of natural selection has come into operation with regard to agriculture; the various crops are to-day distributed nearly as follows: Cereals, such as wheat, barley, oats, maize, and millet,[35] are cultivated more especially in the region formed by the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Entre Rios, Córdoba, and the Territory of the Pampa, which latter is par excellence the cereal-growing district. Maize, however, is grown over a still wider region; it is cultivated with success in the whole of the central and northern regions of the Republic. Rice can also be grown in these regions; its culture is being developed in the Provinces of Tucuman, San Juan, Mendoza, Salta, La Rioja, and Jujuy, and also in Corrientès, Formosa, Chaco and Misionès. The Provinces of Santa Fé, Entre Rios, and Buenos Ayres are also capable of producing rice.[36]
[35] Millet is an article of diet among the Latins of Southern Europe. The ordinary “minestra” or soup of the Italian wayside albergo consists, to English eyes, of a pint of hot water poured over a cup of bird-seed. Pounded, it makes a kind of cake or bread; when boiled it swells slightly and is partly digested.—[Trans.]
[36] Investigación agricola, by Carlos D. Girola, 1904.
Oleaginous plants, such as the castor-oil plant, sesame, and the poppy, find favourable conditions of growth in the north, while linseed,[37] colza, and rape prosper in the cereal districts.
[37] It should perhaps be stated that the flax or linen plant (Fr. lin) so often mentioned in this book, produces not only the flax or linen fibre of commerce, but also linseed, with its valuable products, oil-cake and linseed-oil; the first used for fattening cattle, the second for paints, varnishes, oilskins, and “inlaid linoleums,” as well as the basis or “skrim” of ordinary oilcloth.—[Trans.]
The sugar-cane is cultivated in the northern region, but
especially in Tucuman, in part of Santiago de l’Estero, Salta, Jujuy, and Corrientès, and in the north of Santa Fé, Formosa, Chaco and Misionès.
The vine is cultivated chiefly in Mendoza and San Juan, where the conditions of soil and climate are favourable, and where it is methodically irrigated by the canals which water the whole of the vine-growing districts; but the wine and the dessert grape can be grown in the whole of the central region. It also prospers in La Rioja, Catamarca, Salta, and Entre Rios.