Although the inhabitant of the central provinces of Argentina is invariably of mixed blood, and is lacking in the culture of the inhabitants of the cities, he is more of a gentleman than the majority of those who belong to our select aristocracy. He is patient but by no means humble. Expecting no money remuneration for extending a favor or a courtesy to a stranger, he will willingly go out of his way to do so, but spoken to gruffly, will have nothing more to do with him. In San Luis I asked a cab driver where there was a good barber shop. The one he pointed out was filled, so I went out in search of another one. He saw me and driving down the street, overtook me, and offered to drive me to another one. Arrived at my destination, he refused any remuneration. The son of Pedro Nogera, the hotel proprietor, acted as porter. Upon paying my bill, which was trivial when compared with the services rendered, I offered the boy a small tip. He refused, saying that I had paid for what I had received. Who is there in such stations of life at home that would refuse a tip? Most would be angry if it was not given, and if the sum was too small, would go off grumbling. One of the peasants of San Luis that I consider a gentleman was my regular cab driver. Born in San Luis, he had never been out of the province. His name is Antonio L. Rójo. In appearance he is of large build, somewhat coarse, and inclined to stoutness. For the sum of one and a half pesos (61 c.) an hour, he agreed to drive me whenever and wherever I wished to go. Although inclined to be loquacious, he showed none of that grossness and vulgarity of character that our cab drivers are apt to demonstrate. This man knew his position and was most attentive in showing me the points of interest of the city and neighboring country. He was also well read in politics but never knocked. Occasionally he would stop and pick from the roadside fruit or flowers indigenous to the country to show me what grew in the neighborhood of San Luis. Upon leaving San Luis, I gave him a tip of five pesos ($2.14). This at first he refused to accept and only took it finally by my literally forcing it upon him. He was so delighted with the money that he took a railroad trip to Balde, nine miles distant, to visit some relatives, and on the way offered to spend some of it to treat me.
Shortly after leaving San Luis, westward on the railroad to Mendoza there is seen to the south the large brackish Lake Bebedero; it keeps in view a considerable distance. The short cut of the Buenos Aires Pacific skirts its southern end. The second station west of San Luis is Balde, a collection of straw and brushwood huts, the abodes of the peasants. One well, which supplies the whole community, has been sunk, water having been struck at a depth of 2119 feet. It is artesian. Fifty-one miles west of San Luis, the Desaguadero River, muddy and deep, lying in a chasm between high clay banks, is crossed. This river forms the boundary line between the provinces of San Luis and Mendoza. The country is a flat wilderness of mesquite which grows much larger than in our southwestern States, probably on account of the superiority of the soil, which here is a light clay. There is a considerable amount of alkali, but not in so marked a degree as in the western plains of North America. The mesquite, which grows to a great size, some of the trees having veritable trunks, is chopped and is used as cord wood and also as fuel on the freight and passenger trains.
La Paz, not to be confounded with the Bolivian metropolis, nor with the Entrerieno town of the Paraná River, is reached shortly before one o'clock in the afternoon on the daily passenger from San Luis to Mendoza. It has two thousand inhabitants and is seventy-four miles west of San Luis and eighty-eight miles east of Mendoza. It is important for here begins the cultivated zone which extends as far as the Andes and which is known as the Zona del Riego. The estancia limits and the country roads are all bordered by Lombardy poplar trees, planted closely together. Our North American farmer who plants his fence trees a rod apart would be astonished to here behold them a yard apart. Notwithstanding their proximity to one another, they here attain a goodly height. Some pest seemed to have attacked many of these trees. Many of the leaves were turning brown and the trees dying. It is a curious fact that where this species of tree abounds, goiter is prevalent among the inhabitants. In northern Italy, parts of Hungary and Croatia, and in certain sections of the United States where there are many Lombardy poplars, people are seen with this affliction.
CHAPTER IV
MENDOZA
From Dr. A. R. Davila, proprietor of La Prensa, South America's largest newspaper, I received a letter of introduction to one of Mendoza's best known and wealthiest men, Dr. Juan Carlos Serú, a lawyer and country proprietor, who resides in a fine residence at 1055 Avenida San Martin. I went to see him to pay my respects and from him obtained some valuable information.
Up to the present time viticulture has been the staple industry of the Province of Mendoza, the landscape being covered with vineyards as far as the eye can see. This business has been on such an increase that it has now reached its climax for Mendoza wines have not been exported out of the country to any extent. With the opening up of Neuquen Territory, which is likewise adapted to the growing of grapes, the market will be more than flooded and there will not be much future in the business unless there should be a large export trade. Steps have already been taken to introduce Mendoza wines into Brazil which have so far met with success. Since the European war, the price of grapes has dropped and many of the small proprietors have been forced to the wall. The large ones and old established firms have managed to reap the profits. The value of the vineyards all depends on their proximity to a railroad or to the city of Mendoza. Dr. Serú owns seventy hectares of vineyard two stations distant from San Rafael, a wine producing district in the southern part of the province, which he values at three thousand pesos paper to the hectare; this would bring the value of a vineyard at the height of its production to approximately $512.40 an acre.
One of the largest bodegas (wineries) is that of Tomba y Sella in Godoy Cruz, a suburb of Mendoza. It was originally a private concern owned by Antonio Tomba. A scrap among the heirs caused a division and it is now a stock company with Domingo Tomba as president and the largest shareholder. The wine is kept in cement casks. The most famous bodega, although not one of the largest, is that named Trapiche, owned by the Benégas Brothers, situated about three miles southwest of Mendoza. It has agencies in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba, Tucumán, Bahia Blanca, and in Paraná. One of the brothers lives in Buenos Aires where he conducts show rooms and a sales agency at 420 Calle Florida, while the others live in Mendoza, supervising the manufacturing end. I went to their bodega with Mr. Serú and was shown through the whole institution by the manager. The vineyard comprises 538 acres. The winery at the time of my visit was about filled and has the following capacity:
| Casks | Liters | Total liters |
| 4 | 100,000 | 400,000 |
| 2 | 40,000 | 80,000 |
| 20 | 30,000 | 600,000 |
| 60 | 20,000 | 1,200,000 |
| 44 | 10,000 | 440,000 |
| 30 | 8,000 | 240,000 |
| 20 | 5,000 | 100,000 |
| 180 | 213,000 | 3,060,000 |
To this must be added 9000 barrels of 200 liters, total 1,800,000 liters, which brings the grand total to 4,860,000 liters capacity. These 9000 barrels mostly contain a brand of red wine named Reserva which sells for $51.24 a barrel. The wine sold in the bottle is 7/10 of a liter for it takes 280 bottles to fill the barrel. Perkeo of Heidelberg surely would have had a high old time if turned loose in the Trapiche wine cellars. Seven-tenths bottle of ordinary Reservada which retails in Mendoza at ninety-seven cents is selling now in Italy among the Mendocino Italians, who have returned home on account of the war, at $1.76. The Benégas Brothers manufacture seventeen brands of wine and two brands of unfermented grape beverage. The manager, who showed me around, must have thought I had a saintly countenance, for when I left the institution, instead of handing me some wine to sample, he poured out for me a tumbler of grape juice. I do not want the readers of this book to draw the conclusion from this that I left Mendoza without refreshing myself with some of the real article. The Tomba is the largest of all the bodegas, and there are many larger than the Trapiche; the Barra Quero being one of them.