On the west of the city an immense park is being developed into a charming resort at the edge of the Andean foothills. The handsome bronze gates at the entrance, costing $25,000, were imported from England. Within are splendid driveways lighted by electricity; beautiful flower beds; thousands of trees and shrubs; an interesting zoölogical garden; a pretty botanical garden; and a charming lake nearly a mile long and 330 feet wide, arranged with boating facilities, beautified by islands, and furnished with a splendid grand stand on a sloping shore with seating accommodations for 3000 people. Not far away is a rond point, with a kiosk as a band stand. Already a delightful resort which no one should fail to visit, it promises to be a truly magnificent pleasure ground. If there is one to compare with it in the United States in a city of twice the size, it has not come to my attention.
To many the greatest interest of Mendoza will be in the neighboring vineyards and bodegas. Many fortunes, large and small, have been made in viticulture in Argentina, and this region east of the Andean foothills is wonderfully well calculated for its development. Investments in this business return as high as 25 to 30 per cent profits. One hectare (2½ acres) of land will bear 300 to 400 cwt. of grapes, which sell at 3 or 4 pesos a cwt., an Argentine peso being 44 cents. An economical Italian family can live on the returns from a single hectare. Among the various industries of the province wine production is the most important, increasing between 1895 and 1908 from the value of 9 to 44 million pesos. The largest of the bodegas or wineries is that of Domingo Tomba, whose wines have received at European Expositions many gold and silver medals. This great establishment at Godoy Cruz, a pretty town half an hour by rail from Mendoza or a pleasant drive, may be visited in a half day. Interesting at any time it is especially so during the grape season which lasts from February to May, the fruit coming in first from the north and along down to the southern limit of production. Señor Tomba owns several large vineyards, 3000 acres, and purchases the entire product of others. The bodega, established by his brother Antonio (now deceased) in 1886, then producing 1000 hectolitres, increased to a production of 254,000 in 1909. All essentials of a first-class establishment are here found. The employees, like the proprietor, are mainly of Italian birth. It is an immense property with many buildings of various kinds. Rows of enormous casks for fermentation and deposit contain 220 hectolitres each, others are smaller, also there are great tanks of brick. The large two-wheeled carts for transportation are drawn by four horses, one ahead and three abreast, the driver riding one of the three. A large patio contains a pretty garden and a monument to the founder of the House. The buildings are as neat as possible and of fine workmanship. The wine is excellent, of good body, but not designed for export, not improving with age. For ordinary table use there is none better, and the demand for it in Argentina, in spite of continually enlarged production, is always greater than the supply.
Mendoza is a popular winter resort for many Argentinians on account of its picturesque surroundings and generally cloudless sky, with a superb view of snowclad heights; but most Americans would consider a frequent temperature in the forties a trifle chill without a fire, and would hie away to warmer climes.
The extensive system of irrigation carried on in the Province renders it highly productive of alfalfa, wheat, and corn, as well as grapes; also of vegetables rivaling the California giants, onions as large as plates, colossal carrots and radishes, at some seasons, mushrooms, marvellous in size and flavor, all these largely transported to Buenos Aires. As an attractive center of immigration this is the third province of the Republic.
CHAPTER XXII
ARGENTINA—ACROSS THE PLAINS TO BUENOS AIRES
The great country of Argentina, the largest we have yet visited, in South America second only to Brazil, has more than five times the area of France and above one-third that of the United States. Considerably longer than the latter country, though not so wide, its latitude compares with that from Key West to Hudson Bay, a distance of 2200 miles; its width varies from 200 to 1000 miles. Its great length from north to south assures wide variety in climate, aside from changes in elevation, of which there is not much after getting away from the Andes. The climate range is from Sicily or hotter to Iceland, less than in corresponding latitudes in North America.
The central part of the country now to be traversed is the great pampa section, largely a region of cattle raising, where the soil is from 3 to 6 feet thick; farther north and east in the Paraná basin, where wheat, sugar, and many other products are raised, the soil is from 30 to 100 feet thick. In Patagonia at the south the plains are of sand and gravel, requiring irrigation except for a few small fertile valleys. A rich country is Argentina, now forging ahead with wonderful strides.
The journey to Buenos Aires is made from Mendoza in twenty-four hours by the express trains, chiefly composed of sleeping cars. These have by the windows at one side an aisle, from which staterooms open with berths one above another running cross-wise of the car. Each room contains a lavatory, electric lights and fan. By day there is a long leather-covered seat, less comfortable than those in our sleepers, and far less than on the despised narrow gauge railway from Oruro to Antofagasta. A dining car is attached to the train, furnishing fair meals at reasonable prices.
Leaving Mendoza by daylight, a region of vineyards with a few towns may be seen for some miles, and at harvest time men and women by thousands engaged in picking the great clusters of grapes; but soon an arid country is reached, not like the West Coast deserts farther north, but resembling our western plains. There is a scanty growth of scrub and an excessive amount of dust, which in great profusion creeps through the single windows to the discomfort of all passengers. Here there is almost no rainfall, and one need not regret passing in the night. Santa Rosa, a town fifty miles from Mendoza, has some historic importance as the site of two battles in the civil wars of 1874, where the national forces, defeated in October, were in December victorious under Col. Julio A. Roca.