their species would grow in our own arid wastes of the Southwest because I found with it identical species of cactus growing in New Mexico and Arizona."
Dr. Tower further writes, "As I recall conditions, the algaroba grows pretty generally in the dry fringe along the western and southern margins of the Pampas.
"To the best of my recollection, the algaroba is common at least as far south as latitude 40°, and at least as far north as latitude 30°.
"The trees are small; as I recall them, few were more than ten or twelve feet high, rather bushy, and pretty well protected with long sharp thorns. In the more northerly sections of its distribution, I think the size of the trees was rather larger than toward the south, where the growth was more in the nature of scrub than of what one commonly thinks of as real trees."[1]
- ↑ Speaking of the Pampas of northern Patagonia, Baily Willis says, Northern Patagonia, p. 109: "The shrubs which are present in the flora throughout the entire range of the bushes are the algorrobo or algorrobilla (prosopis juliflora) and the jarilla (larrea divaricata). The algorrobilla is an acacia, a bush of strong growth, characterized by the delicate foliage, strong brown thorns, and large beanpods of the family. Sheep and cattle eat the beans when ripe, and the large roots are dug for firewood."
This was in an area (latitude 40° 45' S. and longitude 65° W. and on to westward) entirely too dry for agriculture without irrigation and having had recently observed temperatures of 106° F, and 12° F.
Through the kindness of Mr. Tracy Lay, American Consul at Buenos Aires, I have received communication from the Argentinian Minister of Agriculture quoting from the book entitled Contribucion al Conocimiento de los Arboles de la Argentina (Contribution to the Knowledge of Trees in Argentina) by Miguel Lillo, to the effect that Argentina has eleven species of prosopis, that one of these, the juliflora, exists in eleven provinces, including Buenos Ayres and Corrientes on the extreme east and all the western arid provinces from Patagonia in the south to Salta and Tucuman in the north; in fact, almost the whole of that vast country. The Minister further reports that the beans are very valuable for live stock, especially horses and mules, in place of green grass in times of drought.
The Minister of Agriculture further reports that one species, prosopis alba, called in translation the white carob, analyzes twenty-five per cent, sugar, sixteen per cent, starch, and ten per cent, protein. This species was reported growing in nine provinces.
