The _yerbales_ of Misiones lie outside the tropical forest proper. They are on the lower fringe of the pine-forest, and begin at some distance from the river, with which they are connected by muddy and difficult mule-tracks. _Mate_ can bear a cost of transport that would be fatal to timber. At the point where these tracks reach the river, the river-steamers stop at the foot of a shed that is almost hidden in the foliage. These are the "ladders" of the _yerbales_. Work in the _yerbales_ lasts six months out of the twelve. The pruners who collect the bunches of leaves and bring them to the furnaces, where they are dried, include Brazilians, Paraguayans and Argentinians. The Brazilians go to the _yerbal_ to offer their services. The Paraguayans and Argentinians, nearly all from the province of Corrientes, are recruited at Posadas and the sister-town of Encarnacion, which is opposite to it on the Paraguay bank. The hiring at Posadas is done according to a traditional custom that does not seem to have changed for more than a century. The description given by D'Azara is not yet out of date. "The people of Villa Rica," he says, "depend mainly on being hired for the _yerbales_. The _yerba_ industry is sometimes profitable to the masters, but never to the natives, who work cruelly without any profit. Not only are they paid in goods for the _yerba_ they gather, but the goods are put at so high a price that it is terrible. They have even to pay for the hire of a bill for cutting the _mate_.... The natives contract as much debt as they can before they start for the _yerbales_, and as soon as they have done a little work, they say good-bye to the _yerbatero_, who loses his money. And the _yerbatero_ in turn is exploited by the merchants who control him." Before he starts for the _yerbal_, says Robertson, the contractor (_habilitado_) gets an advance of four or five thousand piastres. With this he hires about fifty workers, supplies their needs, and gives them two or three months' pay in advance. The three essential and inseparable elements of the _mate_ business are the _yerbal_ in the forest, a shop at Posadas for hiring and paying wages in advance, and a _yerba_ mill at Rosario or Buenos Aires. * * * * *