When the master _obrajero_ removes, he is followed by the greater part of the workers. But to induce them to emigrate, or to recruit cutters in the _banados_ who will agree to work in remote or new districts, he has to be liberal and offer higher wages. Hence the conditions of work and the rate of wage are not the same in every part of the forest. The oldest area of working, which is crossed by the Central Cordoba, between the provinces of Catamarca and Santiago del Estero, has a surplus of good workers. On the other hand, the _obrajeros_ of the valley from San Francisco to Jujuy, where the exploitation is more recent, have only a moderate amount of labour at their command. The returns are not higher there than in the south, though the forests are incomparably denser and richer. It has been very expensive to bring about a continuous stream of immigration toward the main region of forest work, which is now called the Chaco, along the railway that starts from Anatuya and goes about 130 miles further north. As the worker is on piece-work, the price per sleeper when the work was begun on the Chaco had to be double, on the Anatuya line, what was paid in the older line from Santiago to Frias, close to the _banados_. The work is profitable only within a short distance from the railways. Waggon transport raises the price rapidly. Moreover, the forestry industry is just as dependent on the railways for provisions as it is for the carriage of its wood. The _obraje_ has no source of food-supply on the spot. The marshy estates which begin to spread in the area of irrigation-canals at Banda, eastward of Santiago del Estero, supply only their customers at Anatuya and the Chaco line. Sometimes the railway has to bring water as well as food. Over a great part of the Chaco de Santiago there is no running water, and the underground sheets are little known, or inaccessible, or salty. The _obraje_ is a land of thirst. In order to meet the demand for water they dig reservoirs like the _represas_ on the ranches, which are filled by the rains. But as soon as the dry season sets in they become stagnant green pools, and the men have to rely on waggon-cisterns.