Another traveller,[157] who was at Tucuman at the time the overthrow of Rosas was announced, remarks: "If the tide of immigration could only be diverted for a time towards this quarter, it appears to me that this province is capable, in an agricultural point of view, of largely supplying an export commerce. The sugar-cane, coffee, cocoa, cotton, fruits of the most delicious kinds, and an abundance of superior cattle, offer to the enterprising and industrious a certain field of ultimate success. The united provinces of Cordova, Tucuman, and Salta, have already gained a well-merited reputation for their tanned leather, saddlery, and boots, superior to that of other parts of South America." He declares that he left Tucuman with the conviction that it stood unrivalled as the garden of the Argentine Republic.
Like all other up-country towns, it long remained depressed by the political troubles, and in 1875 the population was no more than seventeen thousand. It had increased to twenty-seven thousand by 1884, and has since been making steady progress. The Matriz Church is a fine Doric building, erected in 1856, and there is a large National College. In the suburbs stands the Plaza Belgrano on the site of the village formerly called Cuidadela, where Belgrano gained a great victory over the Spaniards. Like Cordoba, the city is on the trunk line to Bolivia. The Province of Tucuman is famous for the sugar industry, and many of the plantations and factories are near the town.
The Province of Salta one day can hardly fail to be of great importance. It was first settled by one Lerma in 1582, and until 1776 was in the charge of a Lieutenant-Governor under the Governor of Tucuman. During the first half of the nineteenth century it suffered less than its neighbours owing to its remote situation. The forests, hills, and rich pasture make the scenery charming, and the soil is remarkably fertile, maize, wheat, lucerne, and sugar being extensively cultivated. The mineral wealth, though insufficiently exploited, is very great. The town of Salta, which is 935 miles from Buenos Aires, has a population of about twenty thousand. It is well built, but not particularly healthy, owing to malaria and bad water.