[97] The population of the Santa Fé colonies in 1882 was 52,000, of whom 12,000 were in the colonies of the San Javier, north of the town of Santa Fé.
[98] The names of departments which belong in their entirety to the maize region are given in italics. The department of San Jeronimo straddles the maize region and the region of the colonies. The General Lopez territory also extends, in the south-west, far beyond the limit of the maize belt.
[99] Wheat-area in 1889 in the Olavarria department, 319 square kilometres; in the Suarez department, 118 square kilometres.
[100] Draught animals in 1908: at Chivilcoy, 17,000 cattle and 10,000 horses; at Junin, 15,000 cattle and 6,000 horses; at Nueve de Julio, 15,000 cattle and 6,000 horses. In the region of the Santa Fé colonies: at Castellanos, 17,000 cattle and 54,000 horses; at Las Colonias, 6,000 cattle and 35,000 horses. In the wheat belt (South of Buenos Aires): at Puan, (no cattle) 29,000 horses. At the sierras (no cattle), 14,000 horses.
[101] The Agricultural Centres Law, passed in 1887 by the province of Buenos Aires to encourage colonization, has not had good results. By the terms of this law, owners who professed themselves willing to devote their lands to colonization received an advance on the value of the lands in the form of mortgages, the interest and repayment of the mortgage being charged to the colonists. Many owners took advantage of the law, but, after a pretence of colonization, kept the ownership of their lands.
[102] A. Jegou, "Informe sobre la provincia de San Luis," Ann. Soc. Cientifica Argentina, xvi. 1883, pp. 140-152, 192-200, and 223-230.
[103] For Argentina as a whole the percentage is: milch cows, 55 per cent.; oxen, 26 per cent.
[104] A large number of the cattle which are to be fattened are bought at the market in Buenos Aires; but these do not, as a rule, come from the Pampean region.
[105] J. B. Ambrosetti, "Viàje a la Pampa central," Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent., xiv. 1893, pp. 292-368.
[106] Certain duplications in the actual scheme of the railways are due to this need to correct a line that had been planned hastily and was useless. The line from Justo Daract to La Paz (1912), on the Pacific railway, avoids the steep inclinations of the first line, which followed the course of the wagon-road via San Luis. The interpretation of the relief is particularly difficult in a country which has not been shaped by normal erosion. Blunders detected by later topographical inquiries were similarly committed in constructing the Patagonian railways.