like those of their own villages, under the shelter of the works, and are paid in maize, meat, and cigars. In October, when the _algarroba_ flowers and makes them dream of their own country, they receive the remainder of their pay in money, and spend it in brandy, clothing, knives, and firearms. The history of Mendoza resembles that of Tucuman in many ways. In the province of Cuyo, as at Tucuman, urban life has been precocious. In the middle of the eighteenth century Mendoza and San Juan exported wines, dried fruit (_pasas_ and _orejones_), and flour to the coast and to Paraguay. Part of the so-called "Chilean flour" consumed on the Pampa, really came from Jachal and Mendoza. This trade ceased in the nineteenth century, but San Juan and Mendoza found another source of wealth in fattening cattle and sending them to Chile. Belmar, in 1856, estimates the extent of the lucerne farms of Cuyo to have been 150,000 _cuadres_(440,000 acres).[35] As at Tucuman, the present period is characterized by a rapid expansion of cultivation and a rapid growth of population. But, whereas at Tucuman the neighbouring provinces have provided the whole of the manual labour required, and the actual population is essentially creole, at Mendoza there has been a larger number of foreign immigrants. In 1914, foreigners were 310 per 1,000 of the entire population of Mendoza: a larger proportion than for the whole country. The immigrants going straight to Mendoza from the ports numbered 12,000 in 1911, and 15,000 in 1912; almost as much as for the province of Santa Fe, and more than for the province of Cordoba. Thus Mendoza plays a part of its own in the charm which Argentina has for the imagination of Europe. When we examine a chart of the population of South America, we notice that the oases of Cuyo contain the only important groups of European population at any distance from the coast. [35] A few convoys of cattle still use the Uspallata road, especially over the Espinacito pass in the Cordillera de San Juan.