No country in South America is more favourably placed, or presents a greater field for European labour than the River Plate, notwithstanding the drawbacks which have to some extent retarded its progress and injured its character. It has an advantage over Brazil in the absence of slavery, and is of a milder climate, though it is very hot during the summer months, as I experienced when at Monte Video, in January last, at which time the cholera was at its height.

A friend, who has resided in Buenos Ayres for two or three years, chiefly out in the campo, has thus recorded his experience of the average temperature:—

The thermometer, in exposed places, reaches 110 Fah. in the shade, but such cases are very exceptional.

He also adds as follows some very useful remarks as to clothing:

Flannel shirts are best; woollen drawers should also be used

For working, clothes of such colour as will not show the dust are best.

The thickness of the clothes for summer wearing may be very much the same as would suit in England during hot summer weather; they should be waterproofed before being made up.

Indiarubber coats, although very useful in winter, are ruined in hot weather, and stick together and tear, so as to be useless.

Good English boots are not to be had, and are therefore very useful.

As to food he says:—

Be careful about eating and drinking, especially when newly landed, and avoid as much as possible unnecessary exposure to the sun.

Fruit should not be taken in quantities at first. Peaches are said to be the best and most wholesome.

I may add from my own experience that where it is intended to frequent the campo a pair of good riding boots are very necessary, and a rough pea jacket would be a very good companion in winter. In town cloth cloaks are much worn, and in the campo chiefly ponchos.

The boundless tracts of open country are in a great measure occupied by sheep and cattle, and do not require much of the labour of man; but sheep farming having been carried to a large extent, the price of wool has much depreciated, and sheep can be bought very cheap. In consequence, agriculture is now much more attended to and will require labour. Good wheat can be grown in most of the Argentine Provinces, and now forms a staple commodity, which may be increased to almost any extent where railways afford the means of easy transport, and so soon as there are sufficient labourers to cultivate the soil. Indeed, there is no reason why wheat, as well as Indian corn, should not be largely exported, and I believe this will be the case in a very few years. Wheat crops are liable to injury from drought, but the price obtained for the product is a very remunerative one, and it is not subject to losses by depreciation as frequently occurs with sheep and cattle.

Foreign settlers in distant provinces have of late been much damaged by Indian raids, to prevent which the Government has done very little, owing to the drain of soldiers for the war and to internal discord, but this plague is merely a temporary one, and nothing would tend more to remove the evil than a large increase of population, of which the country stands greatly in need.

Emigration, at present, goes on to a limited extent, but chiefly of the class suitable for cities and towns, and not for an agricultural or country life. Several colonies, founded under arrangements with the Provincial Governments of Santa FÉ and Entre Rios, are prospering, and those in the fine Province of Cordova will also do well when the National Government is able to repel Indian inroads and protect the settlers. Many young Englishmen have settled in Cordova during the last four years, with more or less capital, and have bought land, particularly near the line of the Central Argentine Railway, naturally looking to Government for protection, which unhappily has not been effectively extended. In many cases their stock has been carried off by the savages, and their prospects seriously injured. They are now turning their attention to agriculture, and I have every reason to think they will be successful.

Numbers of young men have come out to the Plate with little or no resources, expecting to find employment on sheep farms, and failing this, have fallen into bad habits, often wandering about the country and undergoing great hardships and misery. To do any good in such a country steadiness of character is the most essential quality, nor is it at all safe to trust to the chapter of accidents. It is only by well organised arrangements, and great perseverance, that new comers can expect to overcome the difficulties attending their settlement in a new country, the very extent of which is a disadvantage until such time as the influx of population and the formation of communities do away with these inconveniences.

The Chilian Government have lately made a contract with a Hamburg house for sending to the port of Lota Swiss, Tyrolese, and German emigrants, on a principle that may be adopted with benefit in relation to the River Plate. The emigrants must be provided with good characters, visÉd by the Chilian Consul at Hamburg, and on their arrival at Lota they are to be sent on to Arauco by the Government, and placed in possession of their land, according to the terms of the Chilian law lately published. The colonists are to be furnished with between-deck passages, and they will be allowed one ton of measurement for every adult, and half a ton for each person under 12 years, and they are to be treated on board in conformity with the Hanover Passenger Act. The Government also agree to pay 40 dollars (£8) for the passage of each adult, and 20 dollars for each child under 12 years of age. The contract is to last for four years, and if the scheme should meet with favour in Germany, the Government agree to contract for 100 families for the first year, 150 for the second, 200 for the third, and 300 for the fourth year, with liberty to the contractors to exceed these numbers to the extent of 25 per cent. It appears to me questionable whether the contractors can afford to take emigrants that distance for £8 passage money, but probably the nature of the land concession is an inducement to families possessing some means to augment this sum, in which case it becomes a scheme of assisted passages on terms arranged between the emigrants and contractors. It is, however, a step in the right direction, which other Governments will do well to follow.

At Monte Video there is an Emigrant Office under the management of a respectable committee, where every information is afforded as to employment, but there is no Home or Asylum. At Buenos Ayres there is a miserable building on the ground floor, called an Asylum, where emigrants are allowed to remain four days. It seems to have been formerly a large stable, and is indeed more fit for horses than human beings. It wants both ventilation and cleanliness, the latter at all events easy to provide, but, considering the vast importance of emigration to the country, a more appropriate place might be maintained at very moderate cost. It is not necessary, nor desirable, that emigrants should on landing find themselves so comfortable as to care little about removing, but there is a medium between this and the dirty place open to them at present. Of course the sooner the emigrants are sent off to the locality where their labour is required the better.

If ever there was a time when sheep farming ought to offer advantages to new comers it is the present, when the value of sheep has fallen so low that land may be stocked for a very small sum as contrasted with former years, and land itself can be bought or rented at considerably less than formerly. This has inflicted great loss upon the older residents; indeed the result has been sometimes so disastrous that sheep farmers here and there are giving it up altogether, and others putting as much of their land as possible under tillage. Everything is therefore in favor of new settlers who may choose to try their fortunes in this particular line, only they must make up their minds to rough it for a few years, and be content with a life in the campo.

The consumption of an article like wool can never be subject to any lengthened depression, and with railway facilities there will be increased means for utilising the carcasses of sheep, by boiling down, or otherwise disposing of them. On the other hand, in the ordinary course of things, more land will be put under cultivation, and agriculture as well as sheep farming is destined to play an important part in the commercial history of the River Plate.

As I have already remarked, the want of population is the great drawback under which this country now suffers, and is an impediment to progress in every way. This can only be remedied by emigration receiving the direct aid as well as the encouragement of Government. It is not sufficient that a few stray people find their way up the country, but centres of population and labour should be formed in the most productive parts of every province, which would lead to agricultural progress, and eventually to the formation of new towns and cities. The mere extension of existing cities will never bring solid wealth to the Argentine Confederation, nor develop political stability.