year and prepare the soil of new alfalfa fields for sowing. From June to August it is too cold to irrigate the ground, for the water freezes during the night and interferes with the proper distribution; and, beside that, if it were allowed to freeze in the alfalfa meadows it would destroy them. Hence all up and down the valley the alfalfa is cut and stacked for winter feeding, and there is no irrigation except between the latter part of August or September and May or April. By the time the mules and burros arrive on their way to Bolivia, that is in the months of January and February, the pastures are in good condition.
The necessity of conserving water in the valley is very great, and it is traditional among the Indian population today that there has always been an immense amount of quarreling among the owners. Each landowner of the Calchaqui valley has the right to all the water that originates on his land, a privilege of considerable importance in a restricted valley where tribu- tary streams have their sources at high elevations in a zone of more abundant rains. Each owner also has a right to partici- pate in the use of the main stream that flows down valley through his district.[1]
Landownership
Outside the circle of influence of such a valley the Indians of the Puna occupy the soil without responsibility to a white owner. They pay neither rent to white owners nor taxes to the government. This is on account of their poverty and restricted resources. They are limited to the grazing of llamas, sheep, and goats in the least desirable lands and obtain the rest of their supplies by exchanging the products of their flocks with Indians farther down valley. The arrenderos, on the other hand, pay 50 cents a hectare (about 21% acres) in the form of a municipal tax, but they pay no national tax. The owner of the land must pay from $2.40 to $4.00 per valuation of $1000 on each hectare.
- ↑ The water question in the northwestern valleys of Argentina is described and compared with more southerly conditions (cf. pp. 128-130) by Pierre Denis: The Argentine Republic, London, 1922, pp. 43-46.
