Exports to Chile have not entirely ceased. In 1913 the dealers from Tinogasta and Jachal, who had not appeared in 1912, came back. The southern part of the Sierra d'Ulapes, which is some distance from the railway, reserves its cattle for San Juan. The cattle are, however, more and more sent by rail to the coast. In the Sierra d'Ulapes the dealers from Villa Mercedes, which has become one of the great markets of Argentina, come every year, rent an enclosure (_protrero_), and collect in it, one by one, a herd of cattle, which they then take away on foot. They are sold at the fair at Villa Mercedes, and they disperse in every direction toward the fattening zones of the Pampa. This commercial revolution has led to a rise in the price of cattle, and this in turn has raised the value of land. When the value of the land rises, the methods of working it are necessarily improved, there is greater security, and thefts of cattle (_cuatrerismo_) become impossible. The farmers are not content merely to enlarge their _represas_ or dig deeper wells. They divide the fields by fences--cheap iron wire stretched on home-made posts, or hedges of spines like those which protect the _banados_. Thus pasture can be reserved untouched for the difficult months. This subdivision of the land by fences began in the south, in the Ulapes district, in touch with the richer districts of San Luis and Cordoba. In the Llanos proper the practice has scarcely begun. At Ulapes it is even done on the _mercedes_. Each _comunero_, without opposition, encloses as much space as he can, and leaves his cattle outside, on the common land, as long as possible. He only brings them into his enclosed land when the common pasture is exhausted. This will bring about the end of the _mercedes_; and, indeed, communal ownership is not suited to modern conditions. The latest sign of progress is the appearance of lucerne fields. Lucerne can be grown on the _banados_ wherever anything else can be grown; and the creation of lucerne-farms will give the pastoral industry a security and stability it never had before, besides enabling the breeders to collect stores of dry forage and exploit the full pastoral capacity of the _monte_. CHAPTER III TUCUMAN AND MENDOZA THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES Tucuman and the road to Chile--The climate and the cultivation of the sugar-cane--The problem of manual labour--Irrigation at Mendoza--Water-rights--Viticulture--Protection and the natural conditions.