THE CITY OF CORDOBA, ARGENTINA.
Vol. II. To face p. 206.
Social conditions on the Pampa will doubtless become modified in the future. There is too great a contrast—for a democratic or republican country—in the palatial home of the rich estanciero and those of the labourer. Again, the arriving immigrant, upon whom Argentina is so much dependent for labour, being unable often to obtain land for himself in this enormous country, emigrates again, and during some years half of their numbers go away elsewhere. It would seem that the Government is awake to this condition, although the remedy is slow.
The great plains of the Chaco may, in the future, bring to being another important branch of agriculture, in the growing of cotton, an industry already successfully implanted in this often fertile belt, whose rich black soils have been likened to those of the Mississippi Valley. This region might add much to the world's wealth in cotton production, but here again the question of labour is paramount.
But let us take our further way across these oceans of the Pampa, until the far line of the Andes rises on our horizon.
We may leave Buenos Ayres early and reach Rosario in the afternoon, the train making its way over a country flat as a table, with fields of wheat or maize, or pasture lands; with here and there a white-washed house and a few trees around it: trees of that variety which the all-devouring locust will not attack, for such a species there is. Perhaps the locusts are upon us, swarming in at the window of the carriage, where the native traveller crushes them vindictively. They may be as thick in the air as the flakes of a snowstorm.
On the farms, one method of getting rid of the locusts is by creating an infernal din by the beating of pots and pans, when they retreat to the lands of a neighbor! Where do they come from? The Gran Chaco has been accused of being their breeding-ground and point of departure, but whatever their origin, they are a veritable destructive plague, destroying perhaps in a few hours wide areas of smiling crops and fruitful gardens.
We reach Mendoza, beautifully situated, and watered by streams which flow from the Andes, giving life to many a fruitful sugar-cane plantation and vineyard, where under irrigation scientifically practised, from dams and conduits, the fertile soil yields up wealth in its most delightful forms, wealth of sugar, of wine, of deep pastures of alfalfa. Here, indeed, is the California of Argentina, on the slopes of the Andes, with Mendoza as its pleasing metropolis.
To the north lies Tucuman, famous in still greater degree for its production of sugar, with over thirty factories making sugar and alcohol, and yielding great wealth to their owners.
Here, however, if we are disposed to be critical, we shall point to the unlovely barracks of the labourers who are instrumental in producing this wealth. In Argentina, unfortunately, agricultural labour is little protected by the law, and contrasts are often painful. However, the climate at least is kind.