Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/229

 Senor Diaz gave me some details about his farm which are worth recording here. Before 1912 it consisted of 63,000 hec- tares in all and extended from the summit of the mountains on the cast to the edge of the cordillera that bounds the Puna on the west. Five hundred hectares were under cultivation in the valley. In 1913 he had 60 arrenderos upon his land and a total population of about 300. Each arrenclero pays according to the size of his finca. For example those that control from

. 67—The eastern border of the Calchaquí valley looking northward. To show use of the land. The numbers refer to sites as follows: 1, finca (main ranch or farm); 2, arrenderos (tenants); 3, pasture sites for flocks of arrenderos.

1 to 10 hectares pay 50 pesos a year. They work a month, more or less, upon the fields of the owner and for his benefit when it is convenient for them, and in return he pays them 15 or 20 pesos for their labor, Sometimes they dislike the work to which they are set or the conditions under which they are obliged to work, and they are free in such cases to move to another place where they imagine the circumstances may be more favorable.

The arrenderos move about a great deal, not only in this manner but as travelers and traders, while their families stay at home to occupy the hut and guard its belongings, to till the soil, and to shepherd the flocks, Some of them go even as far as the Yungas in eastern Bolivia. They drive mules to the Bolivian mines and return with coca. The cost of a 22-kilo package of coca on arriving in Argentina is 50 pesos and the duty on it 5% pesos. Upon their little fincas the arrenderos keep goats, sheep, cattle, mules, and burros, and the habita- tions are built upon little alluvial patches at the base of the