The forestry industry in its various forms is not a definite occupation of the soil by man. After having stripped the forest, it leaves, and the land is open for colonization. Nearly everywhere there is a complete separation between forestry and permanent colonization. They do not employ the same workers; the wood-cutter (_hachador_) and the charcoal-burner are not the men who clear the soil. The clearing away of the stumps, which must precede agricultural work, is not their business, but the work of diggers. At Tucuman, where most of the workers in the cane-fields are Santiaguenos, Italians and Spaniards are used for clearing the soil. The gangs of Mendocinos who go to cut crops in the bush round Villa Mercedes will not sign on for clearing the ground in order to plant lucerne. [Illustration: LORETO. THE RIO PINTO IN THE DRY SEASON. _One of the arms through which the flood of the Dulce flows._ Photograph by the Author.] [Illustration: LA BANDA (SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO). _Irrigated lucerne fields on the left bank of the Rio Dulce. Zone of modern colonization: a contrast with the older farms of the flood-zone._ Photograph by the Author. PLATE X. To face p. 112.] The history of forestry and colonization is one of the most diversified chapters in the general economic history of modern Argentina. Round the region of the Pampas, the first point where agricultural colonization came into touch with the forest belt is the district of the older colonies of Santa Fe. There it found the forestry industry already long established, on the banks both of the Salado and of the Parana. The export of timber and charcoal to Buenos Aires and the lime-kilns of Entre Rios was at this time one of the few elements of economic life which Santa Fe had preserved. The colonists did not enter the forest, and did not mingle with the charcoal-burners, but they profited indirectly from their presence by selling them maize. Later, agricultural work spread over the Central Pampa and the province of Cordoba, as far as the edge of the scrub in all parts of the prairie. Wood-cutting is carried on there, on a small scale, everywhere, at Toay as well as at Villa Mercedes and Villa Maria. The price of the wood he sells is a small supplementary income to the farmer, and clearing the soil helps to fill up his time during the dead season for agriculture. The lands covered with brushwood remained for a long time at a lower price than cleared land. They thus formed a sort of reserve which partly escaped the speculations in land, and on which small owners can find a footing more easily than on the Pampa. There is to-day a movement of Santa Fecinos eastward and southward in the belt of scrub to the south of Mar Chiquita along the line from Lehmann to Dean Funes.