[39] While the cultivation of the cane has, for the most part, become dependent upon the sugar industry, which represents large capital, wine-making is, on the contrary, usually regarded as merely an annex of wine-growing.
[40] More recent statistics are not to hand. The proportion differs a little every year according to the prices of wine and grapes.
[41] Besides the causes of a geographical nature which I have indicated, the separation of cultivation from wine-making has other economic grounds, but they do not fall within the range of this book. The large bodega is better situated than the small cultivator for organizing the sale of his wines on the distant market of Buenos Aires. Also, the bodegueros alone are able to meet the competition of Buenos Aires merchants who import European wines and make adulterated wines.
[42] Mendoza is further protected by law against fraud. This legislation is partly national and partly provincial. The national law, which takes into account the interests of the merchants of Buenos Aires, permits the manufacture of artificial wines. The provincial law, in the special interests of the productive districts, is more stringent. It prohibits the manufacture of artificial wines. It also fixes the minimum percentage of alcohol, and prevents the dispatch from Mendoza to Buenos Aires of alcoholic wines to mix with must. Finally, it defends the viñatero against the bodeguero by fixing the quantity of grapes to be used in making a hectolitre of wine and so prevents fraud at the bodega.
[43] Especially during the crisis of 1902-3.
[ 44] Historia de Abiponibus.
[45] See the chapter on population.
[46] Val. Virasaro, "Los esteros y lagunas del Ibera" in Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent. (vi. 1887; pp. 305-31).
[47] Diario de la navegacion y reconocimiento del Rio Tibicuari (Coll. de Angelis, vol. ii.).
[48] It is more and more necessary to deal with the extract of the quebracho on the spot the further north one goes toward the interior of the continent because the freights to the exporting ports rise higher and higher.