[29] There is an interesting study of fairs on the elevated tableland by G. M. Wrigley, "Fairs of the Central Andes," in the Geographical Review (New York), vii. 1919, pp. 65-80.
[30] On Aconcagua also the moist forest serves as winter pasture for the cattle from the ranches.
[31] The title of the merced often shows clearly the attraction which the springs at the foot of the Sierra had for colonists. The land of the merced of Ulapes is defined thus: "The spring and the land within two leagues of it in every direction." The spring is the centre. There its protecting deities live.
[32] The higher valleys of Aconcagua offer inexhaustible interest to the visitor. At Sancho (Pucara valley) there is a group of Italian colonists who grow maize and wheat: a unique fact, I believe, in the whole of this part of Argentina. The Tafi valley is mainly pastoral, the pastures of the valley being used in summer and the forest for winter pasture.
[33] In 1894 it was calculated that ground that was not yet cleared was worth 100 to 150 piastres a hectare at Cruz Alta, and the cost of clearing 150 to 200 piastres, whereas in the moist forest at the foot of the Sierra the land was worth only 75 to 100 piastres, the cost of clearing it was double (300 to 350 piastres).
[34] Except, perhaps, in Barbadoes.
[35] A few convoys of cattle still use the Uspallata road, especially over the Espinacito pass in the Cordillera de San Juan.
[36] There are at present in the Mendoza province 275,000 hectares with a definitive right, and 303,000 with an eventual right. The concessions fed by the Diamante and the Atuel at San Rafaël, which amount to 120,000 hectares with a definitive right and 150,000 with an eventual right, are not yet entirely developed.
[37] There are more than 6,000 owners at San Juan to 91,000 hectares, and more than 9,000 at Mendoza (zone of the rivers Mendoza and Tunuyan) to 130,000 hectares (statistics compiled in 1899).
[38] The difference is much greater at a distance from the Cuyo province. Catamarca, which specializes in the production of grapes for the table, is invaded by buyers from Buenos Aires, and begins to send grapes in December, two full months before the harvest begins in Mendoza.