  THE ARGENTINE AS AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY CHAPTER IAGRICULTURE Natural Conditions—The Constitution of Property—The three principal agricultural districts—The northern, central, and southern districts—The division of crops and their varieties. The constitution of rural property—The division of property—The great estates, called “estancias,” and their dimensions. The drawbacks of large properties—The necessity of a better subdivision of the public lands—The division into lots of large tracts of land, in order to encourage colonisation—The system of exploiting property. Agricultural Production—Progress realised in the last seventeen years—Comparative yield of the chief products, wheat, flax, and maize—Lucerne; the importance of the crop and the excellent results obtained. Increase of the area under seed—The total area cultivated in the agricultural years 1908-1909—The great agricultural belts. The Province of Buenos Ayres, its agricultural development and its crops—The Province of Santa FÉ—The Province of CÓrdoba—The Territory of the Pampa Central. Agricultural machinery, its importation from abroad, and especially from the United States. The Agricultural Yield—The yield of the soil in the different Provinces—Exceptional results in certain districts—Detailed calculation of the yield of a wheat farm—Two instances of great wealth realised by immigrants into the Argentine. Natural Conditions—The Constitution of PropertyThe Argentine Republic, which we are now about to consider from the geological and hydrographical point of view, offers, by the mere fact of its physical constitution, an immense future for agriculture on the largest possible scale, and at the same time for stock-raising and the rural industries. We find that the country contains three principal agricultural regions: (1) the region to the north of the provinces of Santa FÉ and Entre Rios; (2) the central region which runs southward from the limits of the northern, as far as the south of the Province of Buenos Ayres and the Territory of La Pampa, including a portion of the Territories of Rio Negro and Neuquen; (3) the southern region, which runs The first region is characterised by a hot climate, with regular rains in the eastern parts; in the west the rainfall is less frequent. The central region enjoys a temperate climate; there, as in the northern region, the rains are regularly distributed in the eastern parts, but are very rare in the west, which is subject to long periods of drought. In the southern region the rains are less frequent and the climate is more severe, with the exception of the west and the extreme south, which are also in a rainy belt. After long experience a kind of natural selection has come into operation with regard to agriculture; the various crops are to-day distributed nearly as follows: Cereals, such as wheat, barley, oats, maize, and millet, Oleaginous plants, such as the castor-oil plant, sesame, and the poppy, find favourable conditions of growth in the north, while linseed, The sugar-cane is cultivated in the northern region, but The vine is cultivated chiefly in Mendoza and San Juan, where the conditions of soil and climate are favourable, and where it is methodically irrigated by the canals which water the whole of the vine-growing districts; but the wine and the dessert grape can be grown in the whole of the central region. It also prospers in La Rioja, Catamarca, Salta, and Entre Rios. Stock-raising is followed especially in the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa FÉ, and Entre Rios, and in the south of the Province of CÓrdoba; and in a great part of the Pampa Central. The principal characteristics of Argentine agriculture having been considered, we must now inquire how rural property is constituted; that is, among how many proprietors or tenants the 35,000,000 acres under cultivation at the end of 1908 are shared. In the United States, for example, we know by the census of 1900 that the 840,000,000 acres given over to agriculture are divided into 5,739,657 distinct holdings, giving an average of about 142 acres per holding. In France, according to the statistics for 1892, 11,250,000 acres were divided into 5,702,000 holdings, the average extent being about 21 acres. Is it possible to obtain similar figures for the Argentine? The national census of 1895 gives us certain data respecting the division of rural property in this country. The 172,000 holdings, agricultural or pastoral, which were included in this census, had an area of 20,295,000 acres, according to the declarations of the owners; and comparing this figure with the area actually under cultivation, amounting to 12,800,000 acres, we find that only about the half of these holdings is tilled and sown, the rest being left as pasture. This census also took note of the area of each agricultural holding, and although the result of this inquiry has not been published, a simple division of the number of acres by that of the holdings gives us an average of 118 to 123 acres per holding; a figure that would be satisfactory enough, if it came anywhere near the reality. The national inventory gives only these data in respect of this subject. As we see, they are far from complete; but even if they were, the progress of agriculture during the last few years has been so great that to-day they would only possess a purely historical interest. Happily the agricultural census (including a census of stock), which was taken during the first half of May 1908 throughout the whole Republic, gives us some valuable information on this head. This inquiry affected 222,174 holdings, agricultural or pastoral, which had a total area of 450,000 square miles, the area of the Republic being 1,134,700 square miles. This is how these 222,174 holdings are divided:— There are 53,954 holdings measuring from 27·2 to 123·4 acres; 48,323 of less than 25 acres; 46,553 of from 250 to 740 acres; 29,624 of from 125 to 247 acres; 12,992 of from 743.5 to 1234 acres; 11,104 of from 1236 to 2470 acres; 2968 of from 2970 to 9260 acres; 2052 of from 9260 to 12,350 acres; 1157 of from 12,350 to 24,680 acres. Holdings of more than 24,680 acres are relatively rare, in comparison with the rest; 423 have an area of from 24,680 to 30,870 acres; 781 of from 30,870 to 61,750 acres; 168 of from 61,750 to 114,250 acres; 65 of from 114,250 to 123,440 acres, and finally there are 104 holdings of more than 123,440 acres. These figures, compared with those of the census of 1895, reveal the fact that in thirteen years the number of rural holdings has increased by 50,174, and that the area given over to the two forms of usage, which lie at the base of the wealth of the Republic, has increased by 276,760,000 acres. But in spite of this extraordinary development during the last few years, from the point of view of the distribution of the soil, the Argentine is still in a primitive, indeed, almost in a feudal state, by reason of the enormous tracts of lands which are monopolised by a small number of owners. These owners utilise their enormous properties in raising cattle on the great ranches known as “estancias,” or employ them for agricultural purposes, when they do not prefer to leave them in a waste and unproductive condition, waiting until time and economic progress shall give them a value which their own efforts are incapable of giving them. These “estancias”—that is to say, the most usual system of utilising the soil—vary in area from 12,000 to 180,000 or 200,000 acres; some are even over 330,000 acres in extent. Many of them are only a few hours distant from the city of Buenos Ayres, or border on the outskirts of important urban centres. Such tracts of land given over to stock-raising and owned by private individuals would be inconceivable in most European countries, where private holdings are small; nor are they much more usual in a new country of vast area, like the United States, where more than half the cultivated lands are divided into farms of less than 100 acres each, and where holdings of more than 1000 acres, whether under seed or in pasture, are the exception, the average of all properties and holdings being 143 acres. It is easy to understand, without a lengthy demonstration, how far this state of affairs goes to retard the general development of the country. It is equally easy to understand that in order to stimulate this development it is necessary before all else to secure an increased foreign population, by attracting it through the powerful bait of landed property. The great obstacle in the way of the agricultural development of the Argentine arises essentially from the faulty property system; from the fact that enormous tracts of land are held by a few men; from the establishment, in short, of the most odious system of latifundia ever known. This trouble arises from the lack of foresight with which the State has parted with enormous tracts of land, which have passed into the hands of speculators or large land-owners, who have left them untouched, while waiting for the value of their holdings to rise. In the national territories, according to the deputy Joachim Castellanos, who is busily lighting the system of latifundia, there are belts of land, now private property, which are divided in the following proportions: 2,470,000 acres into holdings of from 25 to 99,000 acres each; 7,400,000 acres into holdings of from 99,000 to 198,000 acres each; and 7,934,000 acres into properties of 190,000 or 200,000, and over. This means that there are 17,280,000 acres of useful The principal author of this deep-rooted evil is incontestably the Argentine State, which has squandered its rich inheritance, by allowing it to pass into the hands of speculators, instead of dividing it equitably among the new colonists. The subdivision of these great tracts of land, now concentrated in the hands of a few large proprietors, is, to-day, one of the necessary conditions of the development of the country, and it is with reason that influential voices are raising themselves, in Parliament and in the Press, to proclaim this economic truth. The great “estancias” of 180 square miles in area, covered by immense herds of cattle, must finally, says M. F. Segni, author of an Investigacion agricola, be divided into small concerns of from 4000 to 12,000 acres, which would, with fewer animals but a better system, yield a greater profit both to the owner and to the country. The old system of large ranching must gradually give way to an intensive system, when stock-raising, combined with agriculture, will employ a larger population, attract more capital, and realise better results. There is happily no need to be greatly pessimistic on this point, as we can already perceive a tendency to the subdivision of property, which comes from the powers of the State as well as from land-owners or commercial companies. Thus the land law of 1907 was passed solely with the object of preventing large monopolies; it prohibits the acquisition for the benefit of a single person of any portion of the national domains of greater area than 6170 acres. The importance of this step will be understood, when we remember that the State has still to dispose of 212 millions of acres of desert land, suitable for agriculture, and situated in territories which are rapidly becoming peopled. On the other hand, there are certain business concerns which, as owners of enormous tracts of land, are dividing them into small lots, which they are offering freehold to prospective farmers at fairly moderate prices, and facilities A striking example of progress in this matter of the subdivision of property is furnished by the statistics of the Province of CÓrdoba for the years between 1898-1899 and 1905-1906. During this period 3,193,600 acres of land, out of a total of 9,823,300 acres, which represent the colonies and settled land of the province, have been sold to farmers; that is, nearly a third. Thanks to this subdivision, the number of colonists in this province who have become the actual proprietors of larger or smaller holdings has risen to 4568. What is happening in CÓrdoba is also happening more or less rapidly in the other agricultural provinces; and it is by this method that the Argentine will one day succeed in abolishing the latifundia, whose progressive disappearance is a condition of further development. We might multiply the instances of land-owners or commercial enterprises which are helping the labourer to buy land, for the system of dividing the land into small allotments, selling it at a cheap price, and allowing payment by instalments, is every day becoming more widespread. The journals are full of announcements of the sale by auction of lands which, until to-day, have never felt the ploughshare, and are now given over to colonisation. One also hears men speak, as of an accomplished fact, of the method initiated by several railway-companies which propose, Unhappily, in spite of this tendency to the subdivision of the soil, the most usual system of working the land is still that of letting it at a fixed rent, or for a certain proportion of the yield in place of rent, or by a profit-sharing system, under which the tenant receives 50, 40, or 30 per cent, of the harvest. The large land-owners, who are the most numerous, prefer the former method, and often impose on the farmer the obligation of leaving a crop of lucerne on the land in the last year of the tenancy. The chief drawback of this system is that the labourer never becomes the owner of the soil he cultivates, so that he is not actuated by the powerful ties of property, which should attach him to the country and its destinies. On the other hand, too, the tenant tries to obtain from the soil the largest profit he can, without troubling to consider whether he is exhausting it or not; he leaves not even a tree behind him as a monument of his tenancy. But in spite of all these drawbacks this system does furnish the colonist with means to buy land cheaply later on, and in another district. Such is the history of many farmers, who began by humbly labouring under the conditions above described, and are to-day rich land-owners, possessing enormous tracts of land, which they work in the way that they find most profitable. It is hardly necessary to say that the agricultural methods employed vary according to the situation of the farms, their fertility, and the means of communication. Agriculture, properly so called, establishes itself and spreads along the waterways or railways which facilitate the transport of the harvests. The crops principally grown cannot afford the cost of transport at a greater distance than 180 or 190 miles by railway from the nearest point of embarkation or consumption, and the nearest railway-station must not be further than 18 or 20 miles. There are only a few crops of greater value that can be profitably grown at greater distances, their higher prices covering the increased cost of transport. The region consisting of the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, The majority of the farms, especially those cultivated by the owners, says the InvestigaciÓn agricola, have an area varying from 60 to 250 acres. Farms held on lease or by payment of part of the harvest are usually larger, especially in the former case, and the work is done with greater expedition, but as a rule less perfectly and without the same stimulus. Farms varying from 750 to 1500 acres and more which employ day-labourers are still less numerous, since as a general thing nothing is gained by employing them. On the other hand, however, there are large farms whose owners in reality only supervise matters of administration, and which are divided among tenant-farmers or mÉtayers, paying so much per cent, of the harvest, or a rent in kind, according to the crops and the conditions agreed upon. In such a case the proprietor or colonist is not actually an agriculturalist, but a business man, who more often than not has not sufficient knowledge to assume the scientific or even the rational direction of the operations on his estate. Agricultural ProductsHaving considered the physical conditions of the Argentine soil, the regions given over to particular forms of agriculture, and the disposition of rural property, the moment has now come to consider what areas are at present respectively producing crops of various kinds from seed, comparing them not only with the area of each province, but also with the statistics of previous years. In making this inquiry, we have a valuable starting-point in the Censo agropecuario, In an introductory chapter the Director of this census says: “It is only eleven years since the products of Argentine agriculture have been greater than the country’s needs. For example, the quantities of wheat exported before 1878 were so small as to be negligible. Now we see that in eleven years we have reached a point at which we export 8,800,000 bushels of wheat (1887), 255,000 bushels of flour (1888), 14,470,000 bushels of maize (1887), and 3,248,000 bushels of linseed (1887). Those who will look into these figures will perhaps agree that they represent a great progress for so short a time.” The area of agricultural land in cultivation, according to the census of 1888, amounted for the whole Republic to 5,984,790 acres, of which 2,014,000 acres, or about 33 per cent. were under wheat; 1,979,830 acres, or 33 per cent., under maize; 963,320 acres, or 16 per cent., under lucerne; 299,050 acres, or 5 per cent., under linseed; 71,420 acres, or 1·2 per cent., under barley; 97,660 acres, or .9 per cent., under vines; 52,020 acres, or ·8 per cent., under sugar-cane, and the rest under crops of no great importance. This point of departure being established, let us pass over the follies of and the damage caused by the frantic speculations of 1888 and 1889, as well as the financial failures of 1890, and let us call a halt at the year 1895, in which the country, still under the effect of a terrible catastrophe only lately undergone, had recovered itself and resumed work with a fresh ardour: the only proper remedy to heal its wounds, and to set it once more on the paths of progress. This inventory of the progress realised by the Argentine during seven years of misfortune is all the more interesting in that the second national census was taken at this time, thus precisely marking the economic, democratic, and political progress of the country. We find that in 1895—limiting our inquiry to the four principal cultures—the
If we now compare the figures for 1895 with those for 1902, we find that the national agricultural expansion has never ceased during this second period of seven years. During this period, moreover, an important change occurred; one which encouraged production by placing exchange upon a solid basis: we refer to the law of monetary conversion, which gave paper a fixed value and abolished the discount which had hitherto affected all private commercial transactions. In comparing the figures of the years 1895 and 1902, we find that the progress was as follows:—
It now remains to examine the third period, from 1902 to 1904-1905, the statistics of which are as follows:—
We see that, with the exception of linseed, the progress of agriculture has received no check; on the contrary, the The culture of wheat, as we see, has increased by 2,986,257 acres; maize, by 1,198,928 acres; lucerne, by 666,498 acres. Unfortunately, the culture of linseed has suffered a decrease of 554,036 acres; a result to be attributed partly to low prices, and to the loss of a certain proportion of the previous crops. As for maize, we see that in 1904-1905 5,648,988 acres were sown, a figure which represents an increase of 27 per cent. over the 4,450,060 acres of 1902. Yet the yield was only 131,155,000 bushels in 1904-1905, whereas in 1903-1904 it was 163,300,000 bushels. This sensible decrease was felt chiefly in the Province of Buenos Ayres, where the loss was one of 31,490,000 bushels, out of the total loss of 32,145,000 bushels, while in the Province of Santa FÉ the yield was almost unaltered. The average yield in 1904-1905 for the whole country and the entire area of land under seed may be estimated as 23 bushels per acre, as against 31.4 bushels in 1903-1904. The harvest of 1904-1905 would thus have left a large deficit, had not the increase of sown lands compensated in part the diminished yield of the soil per acre. This fact is a witness to the truth of the important fact to which we have elsewhere drawn attention: that the Argentine need no longer as before fear a bad total harvest, by reason of the enormous increase of sown lands. Since 1905 the agricultural expansion of the Republic has assumed considerable proportions, thanks to the splendid harvests, which have not only attracted a greater number of cultivators, but have also enabled these already established to take in and cultivate new land. Examining only the figures relating to the harvest of 1908-1909, we find that the area sown in wheat, linseed, and oats has increased to 20,342,920 acres, which are divided, according to the figures issued by the Statistical Division
If we add to these figures the 7,042,710 acres sown with maize in 1906-1907, and the 7,410,000 acres of lucerne which were already in cultivation, we obtain a general total of more than 35 millions of acres of land bearing the principal Argentine crops at the end of 1908. These figures reveal the large increase of 10 millions of acres over these relating to the harvest of 1904-1905. In speaking of the chief crops of Argentine agriculture, there is one which we must especially mention, which, although not capable of repetition year by year, yet assumes considerable proportions, occupying already many millions of acres. We refer to the fodder known as lucerne, which in 1890 was grown only on 1,480,000 acres, and on 1,729,000 in 1895; while to-day no less than 7,412,000 acres are under lucerne. This crop is a new source of wealth for the Argentine. Its growth has arisen from the increased value of lands which were until lately considered unfit for the production of cereals. These lands are now greatly in demand, and of late years great fortunes have been made out of them. Lucerne serves two different purposes; it is exported as dried fodder, or is used at home to feed and fatten cattle. Hence the lucerne farmer may either graze his holding or mow it; so that there are lucerne farms and lucerne “estancias,” or ranches, each having its distinct characteristics. The farms are mostly near the stations of the chief railway-lines which lead to the ports of embarkation, and consist of holdings of 150 to 250 acres, cultivated by small But the great lucerne belt, which occupies by far the greatest proportion of the sown lands, is composed of the “estancias”, which are composed of fields or farms of lucerne destined for the feeding and fattening of animals, chiefly cattle. These exist of all sizes; from the “estanzula” to the largest ranches. Latifundia sown with lucerne are common in the south of CÓrdoba, and there are instances of immense green savannas of from 35,000 to 50,000 acres—roughly, from 50 to 80 square miles in extent—consisting entirely of lucerne farms and belonging to a single lord and master. There are several settlements or colonies of this kind in this region; such as the Colonia Maria Soledad, situated at Carnerillo and at Chucul, including some 42,000 acres of lucerne farms; and the Duggan prairie, which has 32,000 acres of lucerne. Properties of 15,000 acres are numerous. According to the last statistics published, the culture of lucerne is distributed as follows: Province of Buenos Ayres, 1,235,000 acres; Province of CÓrdoba, 1,235,000; Province of Santa FÉ, 740,000; Pampa Central, 300,000; Province of San Juan, 200,000; other Provinces, 250,000; giving a total of some 4,000,000 acres. At the moment of writing these lines this area should certainly have increased to a total of 71/2 millions of acres. In spite of the great progress already achieved—it was not less than 25 per cent., for instance, in the Province of CÓrdoba in 1903-04—the culture of this species of forage is still in its infancy in the Argentine; it is bound to increase notably, on account of the superb results to be obtained, both from its use as fodder and on account of the manner in which it will transform a certain kind of uncultivated soil which One of the first economic effects produced by the growth of lucerne on a particular estate or in a given neighbourhood is that it increases the value of the land on which it has been sown. On this point several cases have been cited which would seem incredible, were they not easily verified. Fields which three or four years ago were sold for 2 paper piastres per acre are to-day worth 30, and lands which were sold for 25 to 30 piastres are now sold for 80 and 100 piastres. Lucerne farms also increase the value of the land in their neighbourhood. It is enough to use the phrase, “good land for lucerne,” and the land referred to will immediately realise a high commercial value. Of the profits to be derived from lucerne when exploited in a rational and up-to-date manner, we may judge from a single instance reported in the Buenos Ayres Standard: a league The constant increase of sown lands is certainly the most notable feature of the agricultural situation. It is the more interesting to note that of late years this development has been due to the nation’s own resources, as after the politico-financial crisis of 1890 the current of immigration and colonisation which had assisted agriculture in previous years was almost completely checked. As soon as the flow of immigration is re-established—and it seems to us that The 35 millions of acres sown in 1908-9 represent a little over 4·07 per cent. of the entire surface of the country, as compared to a percentage of ·008 in 1888. Besides this, we must not forget that according to the figures of the agricultural and pastoral census of 1908, 646,620 square miles, or rather more than 39 per cent., are employed in the feeding of 67,211,754 sheep, 29,118,625 horned cattle, 7,531,376 horses, 465,037 mules, and 285,088 asses. Finally, if we admit the possibility of considerably increasing, by means of the intensive system, the yield of cultivated soil, we see that it will also be possible, on the same stretch of land, to increase the number of head of cattle; so that it is permissible to conclude that the Argentine Republic can still conveniently give up a third of her surface to colonisation, without in the least affecting or damaging the industry of stock-raising. Knowing the extraordinary progress attained by Argentine agriculture during the last twenty years, as well as the development of each of the particular crops preferred by the Argentine farmer, we must now inquire in what regions of the country this expansion has made itself particularly felt. For this purpose we will divide the Republic into geographical belts, confining ourselves here to an examination of these Provinces in which agricultural progress has been particularly notable, and limiting ourselves to the three principal forms of culture: Total Surface cultivated during the Agricultural Year 1908-1909.
It will be seen from this table that the great agricultural belt of the Argentine is formed by the Province of Buenos Ayres, Santa FÉ, CÓrdoba, Entre Rios, and the Territory of Pampa Central. This latter has taken an important place in the national production, and so rapidly, that we may still prophesy a notable expansion of its resources. The other productive belts have in proportion made less progress, excepting the Province of Mendoza, where vine-growing has been developed, and that of Tucuman, where the culture of the sugar-cane has made great strides. There, for the moment, the progress of agriculture has halted, as the other districts will only be developed later on, when the populations of the former regions overflow, unless some hitherto unexploited source of wealth—such as the quebracho in Chaco—attracts capital and labour. At the time of the last harvest the Province of Buenos Ayres was in the front rank in the matter of wheat, no less than 6,184,180 acres being devoted to that cereal. This enormous area represented an increase of 2,933,920 acres since the year 1901-1902, and of 5,254,310 acres since 1895. If we compare this figure with that of 1888, when only 609,560 acres were under wheat, we find an increase of 5,574,570 acres. Of the 6,184,130 acres of wheat sown in the Province of Buenos Ayres in 1908-1909, 3,620,300 acres, or 53 per cent., were in the region known as the “Centre and South” (the first and second groups united), formed by an assemblage of fifty-six The real development of agriculture in the Province of Buenos Ayres dates only from 1895. Until then it was considered merely as a country especially adapted for stock-raising, and this false conception was so rooted in many minds that it was believed that agriculture was out of the question, except in the Province of Santa FÉ. Comparing statistics, we find that the latter Province had 992,080 acres of wheat in 1888 and 2,470,000 in 1895, while Buenos Ayres boasted only of 510,090 and 906,490 acres in the same years. It was much the same with linseed; the figures being 180,300 and 657,020 acres in Santa FÉ, and 108,650 and 160,550 in Buenos Ayres. Maize formed an exception; while Santa FÉ, in the two years given, had only 150,670 and 429,540 acres under maize, Buenos Ayres had 1,259,700 and 1,652,430 acres. Only in the agricultural year 1901-1902 did Buenos Ayres step in front of Santa FÉ, and attain such crops of wheat as until then were unknown, leaving all competitors far behind. In the matter of linseed, for which Santa FÉ has always had a special predilection, that Province has always, since 1885, maintained its superiority over Buenos Ayres. As for maize, Buenos Ayres retains its superior position, although it is just to admit that in 1901-1902 the other Province made considerable progress. Before leaving Buenos Ayres, we must mention that the second place in the culture of wheat, is taken by the region known as the West, which, with its 1,471,360 acres, or 29 per cent. of the total, forms, like the analogous region in North America, one of the great grain districts of the Argentine. In this region there are cantons, such as those of Nueve de Julio, Lincoln, Pehuajo, General Villegas, Trenque Lauquen, and others, which, reputed from all time unfit for agriculture, have surprised every one by revealing themselves as absolute mines of wealth. This region has been touched, it is true, by the magic ring of the railroad, which has unrolled in It is in this region that we have seen, as the logical result of the agricultural awakening, the most surprising increase in the value of the soil. These prices mounted by leaps and bounds; from £1, 15s. to £3, 10s., from £3, 10s. to £7, from £7 to £8, 16s. per acre, and even more; yet one is forced to admit that this increase, though apparently capricious, has a real enough foundation, since it is based upon the remunerative qualities of the soil. In the Province of Santa FÉ, the cradle of the agricultural settlement in the Argentine, there are at present 820 colonies and cultivated lands, of which the surface under seed embraces an area of 7,223,980 acres, divided as follows: Wheat, 3,259,920 acres; linseed, 2,037,990 acres; pea-nuts, 29,390 acres; lucerne, 1,787,280 acres; other crops, 111,400 acres. The Province of CÓrdoba has furnished another of the Argentine’s agricultural surprises. Neglected, not so long ago, by the stream of immigration which set in for preference towards Santa FÉ or Buenos Ayres, CÓrdoba began to attract the attention of labourers when the latter (discouraged by some calamitous years in Santa FÉ) were drawn thither by the fertility of its soil, the scarcity of swamps, the regular rains, the cheap land, and the proximity of centres of consumption and ports of embarkation, and by the facilities of transport offered by an extensive network of railways. There the labourers set up their tents, and their numbers increased day by day; there they devoted themselves to the strenuous task of reclaiming the virgin soil, and there, in return, they obtained magnificent harvests, a veritable benediction of grateful nature. The results surpassed all expectation; to such a degree, that to-day the Province of CÓrdoba is one of the first colonial centres of the Republic, and the Province which offers the most brilliant future to the cattle-breeder and the agriculturalist. To-day the transformation of the soil progresses so rapidly as to astonish both natives and foreigners. To give some idea of the enormous development of this Province, it is enough to say that in 1898-1899 it counted 176 colonies and 71 settled estates. In 1905-1906 these figures were respectively 348 and 190. The size of these colonies has increased in the same proportions; in 1898-1899 their area was roughly 3,800,000 acres; it increased to 8,910,000. Of this enormous area, reclaimed and cultivated at the time of harvest in 1898-1899, some 3,150,000 acres represented wheat, 434,500 linseed, and 355,000 maize. We must also mention another important crop, which covers a large area of the Province of CÓrdoba; lucerne, which is represented by some 2,240,000 acres. But the most surprising fact concerning the Province of CÓrdoba is not the vast area under the plough, but the prodigious increase of crops of every kind. Thus the area sown with wheat, which in 1898-1899 was 1,588,800 acres, was 2,417,920, in 1903-1904 and 2,695,620 in 1904-1905. It is the same with linseed; in 1898-1899 184,490 acres were sown; in 1903-1904, 439,830 acres. These figures give some indication of the vast agricultural future which lies open before this Province. Another agricultural revelation has been afforded by the Territory of Pampa Central, which in 1888 had only 14,900 acres under the plough; some 11,000 being in maize, 2100 in lucerne, and 300 in wheat. In 1895 it contained 25,520 acres under culture, and in 1903 308,750 acres were bearing crops of various kinds; wheat, 71,630 acres, and maize, 419,900; and in 1908-1909, the Pampa contained 913,900 acres of cultivated soil; 790,040 under wheat, 74,000 under linseed, and 49,400 under oats. In the space of twenty years the Pampa, once regarded as a sterile waste, almost impossible of cultivation or of settlement, has seen a great development. It contains to-day more than 80,000 inhabitants; twenty centres of population: about 914,000 acres under cultivation; 464,645 cattle; 4,809,077 sheep, and 281,537 horses; with an annual export of products estimated at 15 millions of paper piastres, or £1,280,000. Its soil has greatly risen in value; the square league of 2500 hectares (or 6175 acres, or a square nearly 3·14 miles on Before completing this sketch of the agricultural products of the Argentine, according to the official statistics, we must remind the reader that the total of these products increases by leaps and bounds, so that the figures given must be regarded as strictly provisional, on account of the great development to be foreseen as new centres of colonisation are formed. The Pampa Central, of which we have just spoken as a very mine of wealth, is capable of producing in the future enough meat and grain to nourish a great part of the population of the world. In the Argentine men employ, for the more important crops, such as wheat, maize, linseed, lucerne, etc., the latest and most perfect agricultural implements and machines; cultivators, ploughs, drills, harvesters, etc., etc. We have not space to mention all; but it is enough to say that in the regions where farming on a large scale is the rule, a progressive spirit is in the air, which impels the owners of great establishments, and even simple settlers, to furnish themselves with the very best machinery, for which they sometimes pay considerable sums. That agriculture has achieved the rapid expansion of which we have just given details, notwithstanding the little help which immigration has lately rendered, is due principally to the employment of the perfected machinery in common use. The best types of ploughs, harrows, drills, and reapers of all kinds—binder-reapers, traction-engines, winnowing and thrashing machines, all of the best construction and the most recent model—are familiar to the Argentine farmer, who makes constant use of them. The owners of the great “estancias” make all necessary sacrifices in order to work their estates in the latest and most perfect manner. The machinery comes from the United States, and facilitates all the operations of la grande culture. Two or three years ago, for example, saw the To give some idea of the extent to which agricultural machinery is used in the Argentine, we may mention that in the period 1890-1904 there were imported from abroad, mostly from the United States, 459,006 ploughs, officially valued for customs purposes at £1,331,409; 22,783 winnowers, valued at £277,976; 98,470 reapers, valued at £2,041,982; 37,824 drills, or sowers, valued at £176,268; and 4770 thrashing-machines, valued at £1,250,184. From 1898 to 1904 13,725 maize huskers were imported, valued at £340,479. To complete these data we append a table, giving the number of agricultural machines imported in the course of the years 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908:
We must also mention that there has been a great development of factories in the Argentine, which turn out agricultural machinery and implements; some of these have been established with large amounts of capital, and possess an equipment fully equal to that of the best equipped establishments of Europe. The Agricultural YieldHaving now considered the agricultural progress achieved in the Argentine, the areas under seed at different periods, the prevailing crops, and the regions in which agriculture is more especially established, we must now study the results of As we have already stated, there are no complete statistics available, such as there are in the United States and in other countries, which give in detail the cost of working farms of various sizes, and the prices at which the latter sell their produce; and it is only from such details that we can calculate the net profit of each acre. But, despite this lack, we can probably find the data we require by resorting to the opinion of those competent in such matters, either because they are themselves practising farmers, or because they have set themselves the same problem as that we are facing. In the good lands of the Provinces of CÓrdoba and Buenos Ayres, and in the Pampa Centrale, the hectare may yield the settler 50 piastres (in notes), or £4, 8s.; in other words, £1, 15s. 71/2d. per acre; provided there is no hail, and if he escapes the other agricultural plagues. Some estates this year have produced as much as 2000 kilos of wheat per hectare, or 29 bushels per acre; yielding, at $6 per ton (the Argentine ton of 2205 lb.) a yield of 120 piastres In one particular establishment, not far from the station of Labenlaye, on the Buenos Ayres Pacific line, the yield of a family of mÉtayers, who cultivate 125 to 150 acres, and pay a quarter of the crop to the proprietor, and also work on the cattle-ranch on days when there is no work in the fields, make an annual profit of £88 a year. This is equivalent of a profit of from 10s. 4d. to 14s. 4d. per acre, earned by cultivating the soil as mÉtayers or tenants in kind, retaining 75 per cent. of the crop; but it must be remembered that this is absolutely a net profit: all the labourers’ expenses, the cost of nourishment, clothing, and other current expenses, are all debited first; so that the £88 may be saved or spent or invested. But an argument more eloquent than all the arithmetical demonstrations which we might draw from particular cases is the well-known fact that every year a large number of labourers become the proprietors of the holdings they cultivate, or acquire other holdings in the neighbourhood. It is by no means an exceptional thing for those who cultivate a tract of land to draw from it in a single year a sufficient sum of money to acquire it for themselves, while reserving the expenses of sowing and other work to be done before the next harvest. To support this statement, here are a few exacter details as to the capital required to reclaim a holding and its approximate yield. According to calculations furnished by a man of great experience in matters of colonisation, the capital required by a family of four or five persons cultivating 250 acres of wheat, including the expense of installation in the first year, may be estimated as follows:—
The family or the colonist who does not possess such capital will find rich proprietors or colonists who will furnish him with implements, draught animals, and seed corn, as well as the necessaries of life. The harvest over, the seed corn is reserved for the next sowing; the expenses of the harvest are deducted, and the net profit is halved, one half going to the proprietor, and one to the colonist. It is thus that the majority of immigrants begin to earn the capital which enables them to become proprietors. For bachelor immigrants there is another method, which gives excellent results: they place themselves with colonists who possess some capital as “interested servants,” or profit-sharing labourers, lending their services from the ploughing As soon as he is a land-owner the colonist or farmer has already an almost certain future before him, as the net profits he obtains each year accumulate in geometrical progression, unless some fatality pursues him: a thing that is of sufficiently rare occurrence. To gain some idea of his net profits, we turn to the following details, which are drawn from a competent source: Approximate Estimate of the Expenses and the Yield of 247 acres of land sown with Wheat.
In short, a profit of about one pound per acre. The above figures relate to the property known as “La Vizcaina,” in the Department of Bolivar; it consists of 123,800 acres of agricultural land, or 183 square miles, and is the largest agricultural farm in the Republic belonging to a single owner or held by a single tenant. It must be mentioned that, on the whole, the land is high; it has never been invaded by locusts; the depth of the mould or upper soil is considerable, and the property has two railway stations built upon it and a third about 21/2 miles distant, which facilitate the despatch of the harvests. The above figures do not give a precise idea of the farmer’s situation, since agricultural land is let for four years, and in four years, six harvests may be obtained (three of wheat and three of maize), which sensibly diminishes the cost of working and increases the profits in proportion. We may use the same table as relating to linseed, substituting £7, 18s. 6d. per ton, or thereabouts, for the sowing, and £1, 1s. per ton for thrashing. In this district linseed-farming is accompanied by certain risks, on account of the scanty rain and the late frosts; sometimes the harvest is 7, 8, or 10 quintals (metric) per hectare; but it is usually only 3 or 4. In order that these figures representing the farmer’s profit shall give a true idea of the reality, it must be remembered that besides the wheat crop he can also obtain another and equally profitable crop of maize in the same year, and he may also increase his profits by fattening pigs and raising game and other products which command a ready sale in the neighbouring towns. These examples must not of course be taken as representing a general law; the net income of course depends upon the cost of production and the yield of each harvest, and these two factors may vary infinitely, where the crops under consideration are as large as those raised in the Argentine. But what we may affirm is that, besides a certain number of farms lying fallow, there are hundreds of thousands of acres In a country whose soil gives such wonderfully abundant yields, great fortunes, and fortunes rapidly made, are common. The Argentine, like the United States, has her legendary type of immigrant, who has progressed in a very short time from extreme poverty to great riches, by applying his energy and initiative to agriculture or stock-raising. Here are two of the most notable and best-known, examples. A few years ago there died in the Argentine one of the greatest landed proprietors; a man named Santamarina, whose life-history is worth relating. Son of a small farmer of Galicia, Santamarina decided, when about twenty years of age, to seek his fortune in America. His means not permitting him to meet the expenses of the voyage, he resorted to the classical procedure; he shipped as a stowaway on a vessel about to leave Vigo on a voyage, to Buenos Ayres. Discovered on the voyage, the captain had compassion on him, kept him on the vessel and landed him, fifty years ago, in the capital of the Argentine; without any resources, and sustained only by the hope of gaining a livelihood more easily than in Spain. Santamarina immediately made his way towards the great plaza, where the produce of the country was at that time sold; and there, hoping to secure a job, he spoke to a man who was conducting a wagon, and whose business it was to bring wool from the country into the Buenos Ayres market. This man, seeing him strong and willing, offered to share with him his work as wagoner; but he first inquired of Santamarina had no knife; but he had a piastre, which the captain had given him before he left the ship, and with this piastre he bought a knife, which served in this partnership as his only capital. Having led the common wagon for some time, Santamarina had saved enough to buy a better one for his own; then, chance aiding him, he purchased a few sheep whose wool he sold; and finally, by dint of work, he succeeded in saving sufficient capital to buy a little land and start sheep-raising on his own account. This was the beginning of his success; little by little Santamarina bought more sheep and more land, and became in the end one of the greater landed proprietors of the Argentine. He died in 1904, leaving a large fortune and a name justly honoured throughout the country. To-day a visitor to his magnificent “estancia” of Tandil may still see, under a glass shade, the knife and a model of the wagon which were the first instruments of his fortune. The second story is more commonplace, but no less true. Twelve years ago two Neapolitan immigrants came to settle at Rosario. To gain a living, and no doubt in memory of their former trade, they founded in partnership a boliche; that is, a bar for the sale of drinks. When a certain time had elapsed, their business being far from prosperous, they decided that one or the other of the two was one too many, and so determined to separate. But which of the two should retain the boliche? They drew lots to decide the point; and he whom chance favoured retained the business alone, while the other went in search of his fortune elsewhere. The latter, far from allowing himself to be discouraged, made for Rosario harbour, in search of a new trade: he assumed that of a dock-labourer or lighterman. This was at the time when the growing of maize was beginning, in the Province of Santa FÉ, to give satisfactory results. Our hero, having spent some time in carrying sacks of grain upon his back from the quays to the vessels about to sail, Thanks to the development of the culture of maize in this region, he has become one of the greatest merchants and speculators in this product, and enjoys to-day a fortune of many millions, while his companion, less happy in his affairs, still keeps the little drink-shop in Rosario. CHAPTER IITHE PRODUCTION OF WHEAT IN THE ARGENTINE, COMPARED WITH THE YIELD OF OTHER EXPORTING COUNTRIES The world’s wheat-harvest—Comparison between the statistics of consumption—The conditions of production in Russia and in the Argentine—Comparison with the United States, India and Canada—The prospects of the Argentine export trade in wheat. Having described the progress realised by the Argentine Republic in the course of the last few years, it will be not without interest to inquire what are the resources of those nations which are, or may be, the competitors of the Argentine in the world-market and in the production and consumption of wheat. Here, according to the most reliable sources, are the figures relating to the average yield of wheat in the whole world during the last sixteen years:—
We see that the European production of wheat represents nearly 59 per cent. of the world’s production, for a population which, according to the calculations of M. Levasseur, consists of about 411 millions of inhabitants. If we reduce this figure by one-fourth, thus eliminating infants and the aged, we find that this population disposes of only 272·8 lb. of wheat per head, or 521·2 lb. less than the “type” or standard ration of 793·8 lb. per annum, recommended by the Bureau of Experimental Stations of the Ministry of Agriculture of the United States, after long and patient research. In pursuing this inquiry into the distribution of wheat production among all the countries of the world, we shall be able to judge of the rank occupied by the Argentine Republic, and by so doing to rectify an error which is frequently committed, Here are the figures showing how the production of wheat is distributed:—
This table shows that in 1907 the Argentine occupied the fifth place as a wheat-growing country. If we compare this production of wheat with the minimum ration of 793·8 lb, The population of Germany, estimated at 59 millions, has only 147·4 lb. of wheat per head, making a deficiency of 644·6 lb. per inhabitant. The United Kingdom furnishes its 42,500 inhabitants with only 50·6 lb. of bread per annum, leaving a deficiency of 741·4 lb. per head. Thus Europe, which, without Russia, produces more wheat than the rest of the world, does not produce enough for her own consumption, low as it is. It is therefore necessary to seek out these wheat-producing countries which are in a position to make up this deficiency. Now at the present time there are very few such countries; they are Russia, the United States, the Argentine Republic, Canada, and India, and among these it is the Argentine for which the most important place seems to have been reserved. Russia has hitherto been one of the great providers of wheat to Europe; but it would seem that this position is not one that she can retain. Russia is far from having attained the degree of agricultural evolution which the Argentine has achieved; it is true that she exports 80 per cent. of her wheat harvest, but then the Russian peasant eats only rye bread. Of the 326 millions of acres of cultivated land in Russia, 30 millions only are devoted to wheat, or rather less than double the area used for the same cereal in France, or just double the wheat-area of the last Argentine harvest. In the wheat-belt of Tchernoziom, the black earth is all in cultivation, and its extent cannot be further increased. Fertile though this soil may be, and although its depth is from 12 to 40 inches, the results amount to no more than four or five grains of wheat for each grain sown. The last harvest gave about 5·54 bushels per acre, while the average in France is 20 bushels. These results are due chiefly to the poverty and ignorance of the Russian peasant; it often happens that his wheat crop no longer belongs to him, having been sequestrated by the tax-gatherer in payment of unpaid taxes. On the other hand, the Russian peasant cannot procure agricultural machinery, the price of which is increased by exaggerated tariffs. If to these factors we add the progressive exhaustion of the soil, we see that the production of Russian wheat for export is very near its limit; the more so as the home consumption of wheat tends to increase with the economic development of the country. We can hardly wish otherwise than that these peasant farmers, habituated to a life of poverty, should themselves consume some of the wheat they produce, instead of contenting themselves with rye. Let us now compare this picture of Russian production to that presented by the Argentine. What is it that is responsible for the superiority of the Argentine Pampa over the Russian steppes? It is the inexhaustible fertility of a virgin soil, which produces abundant crops, without necessitating artificial enrichment, nor even the system of the rotation of crops. The soil yields harvests of 20 bushels to the acre, without exhaustion, producing for many years in succession, as it is doing now in Chubut, in the south of Buenos Ayres, and in CÓrdoba, while the yield of the Russian harvests is only 5·5 bushels. For the exploitation of this wealth, Argentine agriculture employs the most perfect machinery to be obtained in the world, employing thousands of horses also, to drive it; while the Russian peasant has to work with his own hands, having neither machines nor horses to multiply his strength. What shall we say of the prosperous and fortunate situation of the Argentine colonist, who is not only enabled out of the fruits of his labour to have bread and meat in abundance upon his table, but is often in process of acquiring, and that without long delay, the earth he cultivates. His happy lot has nothing in common with that of the Russian peasant, the veritable serf of the soil, who never gets so far as to eat the smallest crumb of the wheat he has harvested. The one labours under a soft, benign sky, which does not expose him to the rigour of extreme temperatures in an atmosphere of freedom and brotherhood which make for energy, while the other labours at his furrow in a severe and unequal climate, and under a system of political oppression which crushes his individuality and diminishes the value The Republic of the United States of America is incontestably the first wheat-growing country in the whole world; and it is interesting to consider whether this country, which is also the greatest exporter of wheat, will remain in the future, in spite of the growth of internal consumption, a formidable rival to the Argentine in the markets of the world. Let us first of all consider what great progress there has already been in the production of wheat in the United States.
In the United States the area under wheat has considerably increased, but the yield per acre has steadily decreased. Thus we find that in 1875 the yield was 12·3 bushels per acre; 17 bushels per acre in 1879; 11·7 in 1883; 14·9 in 1892; 13·4 in 1899; 10·5 in 1902; 10 in 1903; and 13·6 in 1904. Thus in spite of the increased yield, the results per acre have not increased, and the average of 1904 is inferior to that of 1879; while in France the average yield has been one of 20 bushels per acre from 1900 to 1904. The national census of the United States for 1900 contains a graphic chart, which represents the average yield; from which we find that only in the north-west, certain districts of the west, and in a portion of the States of Washington, Oregon, and California has the production equalled this Having glanced at the production of the United States, we must inquire whether this great nation is increasing its exportation of wheat proportionately, and how far such exportation may prove an obstacle to the development of the Argentine. The following figures representing the years of the largest export of wheat, will throw light upon this matter.
We see that in spite of the European alarmists, who in 1876 denounced the “American Wheat Peril,” it took fourteen years for the exports to increase from 145 to 218 millions of bushels, and that the latter figure has been only four times surpassed since 1892. The production of wheat, on the other hand, increased 116 per cent, between 1875 and 1903, while the population, during the same period, increased only by 82 per cent. But we must not forget that although the increase in population is constant, that of production is not—indeed, the harvest of 1901 amounted to only 273 million bushels of wheat, as compared to 280 millions in 1877. There is a decrease in years of bad harvests, but the population naturally knows no such decrease. The consumption of wheat did not increase between the census of 1890 and that of 1900; the average remained 424·6 lb. per head, representing a deficit of 368·8 lb. below the standard allowance of 793·4 lb. On the other hand, as the population increases by about 11/4 or 11/3 millions per annum, while consumption remains stationary, we may conclude that if this country has not yet reached its maximum of wheat-production, it is very near that stage, and that the moment is approaching at which all We have mentioned India as a wheat-exporting country; but it is no longer a rival to the Argentine in the conquest of the international markets. Here is the comparative table of exportation from India and the Argentine.
A mere glance at these figures is more eloquent than any commentary, since the exportation of wheat from India increased by barely 10,000,000 bushels between 1902 and 1907, while that from the Argentine increased by 46,000,000 bushels. On the other hand, it is known that India exports only 10 per cent. of her harvest, although her extremely frugal population consumes only 1·26 lb. of wheat per head, instead of the 793·4 lb. we have taken as our basis of annual consumption. We see then that the production of India, if her population consumed a normal amount of wheat, Canada is among those wheat-growing countries whose competition is most to be feared; and this for many reasons—geographical, political and economical. If Argentine statesmen do not seriously apply themselves to attracting a foreign population, and to reducing the expenses which press upon the inhabitants, the Argentine will run the risk of being supplanted in the future by this important British colony. Canada, from many points of view, presents a singular analogy to the Argentine Pampas. Like the latter, it is an almost desert country, its area being 3,190,000 square miles (nearly 2 millions more than the Argentine), with a population of 5,371,000, or slightly less than that of the Argentine; and like the latter, Canada is a country in process of Here we should remark that the Canadian Government is making every effort to increase the population, and spares no pains to attain its object. In contrast to what has been done in the Argentine, where the public lands have only served to form latifundia, and to enrich a few individuals, the soil in Canada is sold by the aid of accurate maps, which are accompanied by a mass of information upon questions that may interest prospective colonists; more, the purchaser is given all kinds of facilities for payment, as well as for meeting the first expenses of installation. Thanks to a rational and active propaganda, immigration is abundant; the figures for 1903 were 128,364, compared with 112,671 in the case of the Argentine. Finally, Canada contains 19,500 miles of railways, as against 13,600 in the Argentine. From the foregoing data we may conclude that the countries capable of exporting wheat are far from numerous, and that the area sown with cereals throughout the world is comparatively small. Hitherto wheat has been grown on an extensive scale in the United States, Russia, and India; the agriculturalist demands everything of the soil and gives it nothing, so that the alternative will soon arise of losing the harvest, or of restoring fertility to exhausted soils, by means of costly manures which will absorb enormous sums. Then the legend of new countries will have had its day. To resume: there exists an enormous discrepancy between the needs of the consumer and the production of wheat; and the Argentine Republic, thanks to a concatenation of favourable economic and physical circumstances, is certainly in the best position in a great measure to supply this deficiency. But to obtain the desired result it is indispensable that she should still increase her population, and that the colonist should find upon the hospitable Argentine soil not only the guarantees of liberty and justice, but conditions propitious to his evolution as a land-owner. CHAPTER IIISTOCK-RAISING The transformation of the; old “estancia”—The principal stock-raising establishments: description, extent, number of heads of cattle and favorite breeds—The great “estancias” of the South and Patagonia. Approximate area of the soil devoted to cattle and sheep; general estimate of the numbers of cattle and sheep—Results of the census of 1908—The capital represented by Argentine stock-raising. Having spoken of agriculture and its future, we must mention another industry, which is the second source of national wealth—the pastoral industry. As a result of the rapid rise in the value of land, and the multiplication and selection of animals, the old form of Argentine stock-raising is undergoing, at the present time, a profound modification throughout the country. The traditional ranch or estancia, on which the animals browsed at will on vast prairies enclosed by wire fences, exposed to all the variations of the weather and all the vicissitudes of the temperature, feeding only on the grass of their pastures. This old type of estancia is gradually disappearing; is undergoing a transformation into carefully-managed farms, on which artificial prairies are constructed; farms with lucerne fields of 12,000, 25,000 or 50,000 acres, surfaces difficult for a European to conceive. The science of pedigree herds and the culture of carefully-enclosed pastures have created, says a distinguished writer, the true pastoral industry, in which stables and barns and sheds take the place of the ancient “corral.” Nothing would be more difficult—and for our part we renounce the task—than to say which are the first stock-raising establishments of the Republic; whether by reason of their extent, the numbers and the breed of their animals, or the magnificent dwellings of their owners. Establishments of this type are to be counted by hundreds, by thousands. Nevertheless—though exposed to the danger of falling into inevitable errors or omissions, for lack of precise information—we must not forget to mention the Estancia San Juan, founded by SeÑor Leonard Pereyra, at a distance of 25 miles from Buenos Ayres, and a mile and a half from the La Plata, and consisting of over 40 square miles of meadows in full luxuriance. Then there is the Estancia San Jacinto, belonging to SeÑor Hugel T. de Alvear, an establishment reputed as one of the foremost in the country, which embraces an area of 244 square miles, or about one-third the area of the county of Surrey. Of this enormous area some 64 square miles are under lucerne, and support 100,000 Durham cattle, 100,000 Lincoln sheep, and 10,000 horses. The Estancia la Gloria of Santamarina & Sons, situated at Laprida, in the Province of Buenos Ayres, comprises 145 square miles, and supports 20,000 cattle and 60,000 sheep. Another establishment, which might be taken as a model, is the Estancia San Martin, the property of SeÑor Vincent L. Casares; which is situated at CaÑuelas, and covers an area of some 30 square miles. The specialities of this establishment are the breeding of draught-horses—Morgans, Hackneys, Shires and Clydesdales; the breeding of cattle—Durhams, Holsteins and Swiss—of which the finest individuals are kept for breeding, and the second-grade animals fattened for export; the keeping and selling of bulls of the three A portion also of this estancia is an establishment known as La Martona, which alone supplies three-quarters of the milk consumed in Buenos Ayres, and which also manufactures butter for home consumption and for export. Another of the great stock-raising establishments of the Republic is the SeÑor Carlos Casares’ Estancia Huetel, about 150 miles from Buenos Ayres, on the Southern Railway. It occupies an area of some 240 square miles, all enclosed by wire fencing, and divided into forty-two stock-raising establishments, with fifty-seven shepherds’ houses and five managers’ houses. This establishment contains about 62,000 Durham cattle, 87,000 Lincoln sheep, with pedigree rams, imported or born on the estancia, and 4200 Clydesdale horses, draught-horses and saddle-horses. About 11,000 acres are sown with lucerne, and 5000 with maize, wheat, oats and linseed. There are fifty-six or more imported bulls, and notably one of the finest of his race, the celebrated Aguinaldo, winner of the first prize awarded by the Agricultural Society. The park of this estancia draws the attention of visitors; it is 500 acres in extent, and contains some 520,000 forest trees, 870,000 shrubs, and 35,000 young trees. The total number of trees on the estate is over 2 millions. There is a school on the estate, all the expenses of which are paid by the proprietor. The Estancia San Jacinto, owned by SeÑor Saturnin J. Unzue, also merits a special description. It is a few hours distant from Buenos Ayres, and covers an area of some 55 square miles. It supports 10,000 cattle and 30,000 sheep. On this estancia the Durhams have been brought to a great pitch of perfection. The stud is famous for its saddle-horses, and contains 140 pedigree animals, imported or born in the country. Las Palmas, belonging to Colonel Alfred T. Urquiza, would figure as a model establishment in any country in the Yet another establishment, which must be reckoned one of the best in the Argentine, is the CabaÑa San Gregorio, belonging to SeÑor Gregorio VillafaÑe; an Argentine who in strict justice ought to be mentioned as one of the first breeders in the country, on account of the intelligent efforts and pecuniary expenditure devoted by him to improving the breeds of cattle, sheep, and horses, during many years of personal labour. SeÑor VillafaÑe’s establishment is not of very great extent, its area being only 18,000 acres, but is notable for the great number of its pedigree cattle and the purity of type to be observed in his sheep. He devotes himself chiefly to breeding Durham and Hereford bulls, Lincoln rams, Hackney and Clydesdale stallions, collie dogs, fox-terriers, Brahma fowls, Catalans, Dorkings, and Plymouth Rocks. We must also mention the Estancia San Pascual del Moro, the property of SeÑors Adolfo and Rufino Luro. It is famous for its stud of race-horses, from which issued, in 1904, the great winner of the season, Old Man. This long list of breeding establishments would still be incomplete indeed, did we fail to make special mention of the Estancia Chapadmatal of SeÑor M.-A. Martinez de Hoz, who has made the greatest efforts to raise his establishment to the level of the best European models. “Equal to the best in Europe,” was the judgment of a competent and impartial observer, Colonel Holdich, who, in his last book, entitled Los Paises del Fallo del Rey, bestows upon it this well-merited praise:— “A well-known estancia, that of SeÑor Michel-Alfred Martinez de Hoz, near the Mar del Plata, surprised me by the singular character of its surroundings. The soil, with its irregularities, had the look of an English park. Little “Lower to the right, on the softer soil by the banks of a stream, which descended babbling to the sea, through beds of rushes and buttercups, was a pasture; here, standing in the branches of the bank, were the Shire horses; they formed animated groups, and placidly watched our movements; they were the most magnificent examples to be found out of Lincolnshire. Further down still, on drier soil, was a troop of mares, of an English-Creole cross, with their foals. These animals were for draught, and the excellence of their breeding is proved by the registers of the Argentine Rural Society, which record the prizes awarded to the Estancia Chapadmatal. “In a higher part of the estate, in a quarter reached through long avenues of poplars, which lead thither from the house, and where the ground is covered with forests of eucalyptus or willows, are the bulls and cows. The Argentine stock-breeder does not consider expense when it is a matter of importing good English cattle for breeding purposes. The chief estancia has a series of breeding bulls, which are led before the visitor, each by his special keeper, with the same pomp and ceremony as the stallions which precede them in the brilliant review. It is not only near the capital and the principal centres of population that we find these model estancias, which afford their owners every European comfort. They are to be found also in the extreme south of the country, in the solitudes of Patagonia, near the 50th degree of south latitude.” “From the River Coyle, from Puerto Gallegos and Magellan Straits, to a point near Last Hope,” says an Argentine traveller, Mr George J. M’Lean, who visited these In the Territory of Santa Cruz is the Estancia San Julian, belonging to the San Julian Sheep Company. This “estancia” has an area of 296,000 acres—462·5 square miles—and contains 70,000 sheep, with an annual yield of 90 per cent. of lambs, or 63,000. In the same Territory is another very prominent estancia, the property of the Patagonian Sheep and Farming Company Limited. This embraces an area of 471,000 acres—734 square miles—the area of a medium-sized English county. Finally, in the same Territory is a vast property of 700,000 acres—1060 square miles—belonging to the Bank of Antwerp. In the Territory of Chubut, which for some years has been a favourite locality for European capital and European immigrants, and which contains a large French colony, there is a very important estancia belonging to the Lochiel Sheep Farming Company Limited, which covers an area of 327,000 acres, and contains 35,000 sheep. Another foreign company established in the southern part of the Argentine, “The Argentine Southern Land Company,” possesses 1,518,000 acres of land, of which 859,000 are in the Territory of Rio Negro, and 659,000 in that of Chubut. This company was established in 1899, with a capital of £230,000, later reduced, on account of business misfortunes, to £140,000, which is the present capital. On this company’s In all these establishments, and in many others which we are unable to cite, as it is difficult to obtain precise information concerning them, we find that, thanks to the intelligent efforts of their owners in seeking to import the best breeds of the most famous European breeding establishments, there are now many stallions, bulls, and rams of the purest blood and of great value, which are either imported or selected; and through these the general stock of the country has reached a very high quality of race. All stock-breeders, even the smallest, are aware to-day of the great advantages to be obtained by crossing selected animals with sires of pure blood, and the result has been a great advance in the stock-raising industry. The statistics of importation show that in nine years, from 1899 to 1907, plus eleven months of 1908, there have entered the country from England, where the Argentine breeder usually seeks his stud animals, 10,040 bulls and cows, and 35,094 sheep. These two figures alone show the importance which the Argentine breeder attaches to the improvement of the breed of his flocks and herds. The prices paid for these animals are sometimes extravagant; in one case £3520 was paid for a bull; but land-owners willingly pay such sums in the certainty that such sires will bring them considerable profits. The area at the disposal of the Argentine stock-raiser is still practically unlimited. We need only remember that of the 750 millions of acres which roughly represent the area of the Argentine soil, one-half, or some 375 millions of acres, are adapted to stock-raising. Of this enormous area some 185 millions might be sown at once with cereals and fodder, notably in the coast Provinces, in CÓrdoba, and the Pampa, and there remains as much more for stock-raising, without taking into account the millions of animals that might be nourished by intensive culture in the cultivated zone. This extension would allow of the existence of 40 million cattle and 200 million sheep. Results of the Census of Stock taken in 1908What is the amount of stock at present in the Argentine Republic? We are in a position to answer this question, one of the present writers, SeÑor A. B. Martinez, having been appointed Director of the last agricultural and pastoral census, which was taken during the first fortnight of May 1908, according to a law passed by Congress. The work which sums up the results of this important undertaking is in three volumes, and is at present in the press; thanks to which fortunate circumstance we are able to anticipate its publication, and to give our readers the benefit of this investigation. The census of agriculture and stock-raising, undertaken over the entire territory of the Republic, has revealed the existence in Argentine territory of 29,116,625 cattle, 7,531,376 horses, 465,037 mules, 285,000 asses, 67,211,754 sheep, 3,945,086 goats and 1,403,591 swine. If we compare these results with those of the two previous censuses, that of 1888 and that of 1895, we obtain the following table:—
We see from these figures that in twenty years, between 1888 and 1908, the number of cattle has increased by 7,152,695 head; and in thirteen years, between 1895 and 1908, by 7,415,099 head. The number of horses has increased by 3,268,459 between 1888 and 1908, and by 3,085,517 between 1895 and 1908. Sheep have increased by 510,657 between 1888 and 1908, but decreased by 7,167,808 between 1895 and 1908. Swine, far from numerous if we compare their numbers with these obtained from other countries, present a continual increase: 1,000,388 between 1888 and 1908, and 750,825 between 1895 and 1908. The decrease of 700,000 in the numbers of sheep in thirteen years is in keeping with what has been observed in the principal wool-producing countries. Authorities assure us The causes of this constant diminution are numerous. First of all we will take the development of agriculture, which has expelled the sheep. According to an eminent collaborator in the census, “The sheep has to walk, must walk far and wide, must walk always, in order to eat sufficiently—unless he does so, his food will be too costly; he is essentially a vagabond, and he consequently requires a great space and continual supervision.” Sheep-breeding really gives encouraging results in regions where the area of the soil and the prairies is out of all proportion to the number of labourers available for its culture. Land given up to sheep cannot support the high rents paid by the producers of cereals; this is the principal cause of the decline of sheep-farming all the world over. The following table gives the total number of beasts of various kinds, classed according to purity of breed:—
In the matter of cross-breeding the Argentine has made astonishing progress, the proof of which is to be found in the comparison of the figures for 1895 with those of 1908. It is enough, for our purpose, to mention that in 1895, in the Province of Buenos Ayres, out of 100 cattle, 6 per cent. were of pure blood: 49·2 per cent. were cross-bred, and 50·2 per cent. were of native breeds; and that thirteen years later these figures were transformed into 6·2 per cent. of pure blood, 85·1 per cent. of cross-bred cattle, and 8·7 per cent. of native breeds. This improvement in the Province of Buenos Ayres is repeated in the other more productive Provinces, and in the case of other species of animals. We have stated that the number of cattle in the Argentine Republic is over 29 millions; this number may be analysed, according to sex, age, etc., in the following manner:— Year 1908.
It now remains to consider the value of the animals registered as existing in the Republic in the year of census 1908. In 1895 this value was estimated at 1,136,780,411 piastres (paper), which with the exchange at 300 per cent. was equivalent to 378,926,803 piastres (or dollars) in gold, or £75,785,360, 12s., while the latest census gives a value of 1,481,282,245 If now we analyse these figures, dividing them among the various species of animals, as given by the censuses of 1895 and that of 1908, we obtain the following table:—
We see from this that, in spite of the moderate valuation of the stock in 1908, its value had increased, in thirteen years, by nearly £54,600,000. Knowing the numbers and the value of the live stock of the Argentine Republic, a last question arises of the highest interest. What place does the Argentine hold among those nations in which stock-raising has reached its highest development? To answer these questions, we have resorted to the most authoritative publications available, with the result that we are enabled to draw up the following table:—
This table shows us that, in the matter of cattle, the Argentine Republic holds the third rank; it is also in the third rank in the matter of horses; in the second rank in the If we compare the Argentine with the United States in particular, the contrast is striking; while in North America the value of all bestial reaches the colossal sum of £664,800,000, in Argentina it amounts only to £130,400,000, distributed as follows:—
Consequently the Argentine is far from achieving the wonderful results obtained by the great northern Republic of America; CHAPTER IVTHE VALUE OF THE SOIL Difficulties in estimating this value—Principal factors of valuation—Examples taken from lucerne fields and the forests of quebracho—Despite adverse circumstances, and with a few exceptions, there has always been a tendency for the price of land to rise—Alienation of lands acquired by conquest from the Indians; their enormous present value—The rise of value dates from 1902, and has hitherto continued without relapse—The causes of this rise, and its rational principles, according to an authoritative opinion. Examples of valuation drawn from the sales of public lands—The rise of prices in the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, CÓrdoba, Santa FÉ, and the Pampa, with figures indicating the prices realised in some large recent transactions. Nothing is more difficult than to determine the value of land in a country in the course of formation, like the Argentine Republic, in which it undergoes considerable increase from one moment to another; not only on account of general progress, but also from special reasons, such as good harvests, the construction of a railroad, etc. In the same region, in the same district, two neighbouring tracts will often have a different value, accordingly as they have or have not a permanent water-supply, or as they are more or less adapted to agriculture, nearer to or further from a railway, a station, or a centre of population. For some years now, two new factors of valuation have come into being: the culture of lucerne and the planting of quebracho wood. Since farmers have known of the enormous—the fabulous—profits to be derived from fields of lucerne, every buyer of land inquires first of all if there is water available; that is, if the subterranean water-level is near the surface; as on that factor depends the existence of the lucerne pasture for many years. If upon investigation it is found that there is water the land, by this sole fact, acquires an enormous value in comparison to what it would be worth if it were unfit for lucerne. An important newspaper, published in Buenos Ayres in the English tongue, the Standard, has shewn that the price of land in Victoria (Australia), where the acre is worth from £4, 6s. to £9, compared to the prices paid for land in the Argentine suitable for sowing lucerne (that is, in the south of CÓrdoba and San Luis, where there are no invasions of rabbits, where there is no drought, and which are half-way, so to speak, to the European markets) proves, by comparison, the low value of Argentine land. Even when near a railway, such lands may be bought for 17s. 6d. or £1 per acre. In proof of the above affirmation, the Standard has made the following calculation: Let us suppose an expense of 6s. 5d, per acre for the expenses of sowing and cultivating an acre of soil (including sowing it with lucerne at £2 per cwt.), it follows that the acre costs from £1, 3s. to £1, 8s., and the square league of 6175 acres (representing the work of eighteen months) about £7920. Adding £880 for fencing and watering, we find the price of the square league (9.648 square miles) amounts to some £8800. What, according to the Standard, is the profit to be drawn from this square league? It will fatten some 4500 head of three-year-old cattle, which may be bought at £4, 8s. per head, and seven months later sold at £7, 18s. 6d.; this will give a profit of £3, 10s. 6d. per head, or a gross profit of £15,862. Deducting £7040 In the case of quebracho—a very hard wood which is useful for building and constructive purposes, and from which an excellent tannin can be obtained—matters are much the same. Having had experience of the large profits to be derived from the manufacture of quebracho extract, and the splendid dividends paid by the companies engaged in the What is true of lucerne and quebracho is also, though on a much smaller scale, true of linseed or wheat, when after an abundant harvest the land-owner or farmer procures the requisite capital for the purchase of the land he has been cultivating and pays a good price for it. There are here elements which confound all calculations made in advance, and make it difficult to fix even an approximate value on the soil. At the present moment there is no basis for such a valuation. A farm selling to-day at 20s. per acre, may to-morrow sell for 26s., the day after to-morrow for 32s., and so on, until prices are reached which astonish the first vendor, and give him the melancholy conviction that he did ill to part with his land. For this reason, the best thing one can do to-day is to hold on to the land. The value of rural and urban property has gone on increasing more and more rapidly for more than forty years; and although there have been great fluctuations in prices, the rise has always been constant in the long run; owing to the increase in the population, the consolidation of political institutions, the construction of far-reaching railway systems, the prodigious development of international traffic, and, as a natural consequence, the great increase of public wealth. To gain an idea of the entire significance of this increase in values, we must go back to the more than modest prices of rural property which ruled before the later development of the upward movement. It is enough to recall the fact that in 1879, with the object of procuring funds in support of the expedition which General Roca was leading against the Indians of the wilderness, an expedition which resulted in the conquest of 226,800 square miles of territory, the Government offered for sale an enormous tract of land at This depreciation of rural property continued still unchanged for a dozen years; so much so, that in order to tide over the crisis before the crash of 1890, the Government, which so disastrously handled the affairs of the nation, had the evil inspiration to offer for sale in Europe, by virtue of the law of October the 15th, 1889, those very 24,000 leagues of land obtained by conquest by General Roca’s expedition. The sale was to be effected at the figure of 10 francs per hectare—about 3s. 3d. per acre!—payable half upon purchase and half at the end of two years. No limit was set to the powers of purchase of any one buyer; each could buy just as much as his purse would allow. The law, in palliation of this incredible operation, The depreciation of rural property continued for some This situation continued until 1902—a year which saw the settlement of the old question of the Chili-Argentine frontier; a year of abundant harvests and enormous development in the stock-raising world; a development which took shape first in the export of cattle on the hoof and then in the despatch of great quantities of chilled or frozen meat to the English markets; a year which also saw the advent of a financial stability resulting from the “law of monetary conversion,” which gave a fixed value to paper money, the medium of all commercial transactions in the interior. Then came a steady and decisive rise in the value of landed property in general and of rural property in particular. Since the beginning of this movement the value of the soil has steadily increased; the last price is always greater than the previous one, although the latter may have appeared stationary, if not final. This being the case, we ought to ask whether this general rise responds to permanent and sufficient causes, or if it is only the result of capricious speculation, affecting landed property now as at another time it affected paper money. In reply to this question, SeÑor Roman Bravo, one of those Argentines who are most familiar with all the complex aspects of land valuation,—for he is the Director of the house of business “The economic life of the country offers at each step signs of further progress. The enlargement of ports, the extension of railways, the dredging of channels, the “But it is in matters of land purchase that we best perceive the material expansion and the intensity of the forces in action. Without going back to the year 1904, we have only to consider the transactions of the last few years to realise that, both in the capital of the Republic and in the national Territories and the Provinces, the period has been a fertile one in the matter of transactions in landed property. There has been no more active period since 1889; and this time the facts have an explanation, a natural and logical sanction. Agriculture and stock-raising have so augmented the sources of national wealth that in a few years the balances in favour of the country have reached the figure of nearly £20,000,000. This is the effective cause of the increased value of the land: to which we must add the confidence which we all feel in the gradual development of the forces which labour has released, to the benefit of public tranquillity.” One of the most surprising examples of the increased value of the soil, and of the interest awakened by sales of land, is to be found in the public and official auction of national lands which took place in the month of April 1905. These sales were to be effected on account of those who had bought these lands in analogous circumstances in 1897, and who had not paid for them during the delay stipulated by the law. The whole surplus over the price established by the previous sale, less deductions for interest and other expenses, went by law to the original purchaser. The auctions were conducted in the presence of a crowd of speculators, capitalists, and labourers, eager to invest their money in so remunerative a speculation, since in the Argentine all are convinced that the purchase of the soil is the best form of saving. The result of the sale was that in many cases double the original price was obtained; three times the price in some cases, and in some five times the original price was realised. In the Territory of Pampa Central an area of 933,680 In the Territory of Chubut, 265,278 acres were put up to auction, the original price being £5243·5, and the sale price £25,361·6, or an average of £590·28 per league, or 1s. 9·7d. per acre. In the Territory of Santa Cruz an area of 98,800 acres was put up for sale, the first price being £3391·34, and was sold for £9477·6, or 1s. 10d. per acre. In the Territory of Chaco, in which especial interest was felt, as the lands in question bore forests of quebracho trees of great value (the quebracho industry being then in vogue), higher values were obtained, representing five times the original sale price. The lands to be sold in this Territory represented a surface of 123,500 acres, and were first disposed of for £4948. However, a price of £24,170 was obtained, representing an average of £1208·24 per league, or 4s. 6·9d. per acre. In the Territory of Rio Negro 74,100 acres were put up for sale, which were previously sold for £3058. They realised £8712, or £726 per square league, or 2s. 4·2d. per acre. The general result of the sale was that the Government did a splendid stroke of business; but the transaction was still more to the profit of the fortunate first applicants, who, for failing to comply before a given date with the conditions established by law, were rewarded by receiving the price of sale less the price at which they bought; sums which to many of them represented a considerable fortune. Since that period the value of land has continually increased, as we see from the following information, which was given us by the “General Bureau of Lands and Colonies” of the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1906 and 1907, this Bureau sold by public auction a large section of public lands, and the prices obtained were far higher than those we have recorded above. In the Territory of Rio Negro, in August 1906, 497,600 acres were sold at an average price of 9s. 8d. per acre. In March 1907, 314,974 acres of land, situated in the Numerous sales were effected in 1907 in the Pampa Central. Among others, we may cite the following: 18,520 acres sold at 10s. 6·7d. and 4640 at 10s. per acre; a lot of 18,750 acres at an average price of 6s. 9·7d.; 7500 at 6s. 5d.; 151,410 acres at 4s. 4.8d.; 1235 acres at 3s. 7·6d.; and 12,350 acres at 3s. 11·3d. per acre. In October of the same year, auction sales were held in various portions of Pampa Central, the results being as follows: 16,425 acres at 8s. 10·24d.; 5390 at 8s. 2·3d.; 40,137 at 10s. 3d.; 24,700 at 7s. 4·3d.; 306,050 at an average price of 3s. 8·5d.; 24,700 at 3s. 7·8d., and 9182 at 6s. 7·8d. These examples are given to show the variety of actual prices, according to the situation and the yield of the land. In the matter of private sales, it is difficult to keep track of rising values on account of the number of sales which take place every day. We will try, however, to give a few examples, to arrive at some approximate value of the Argentine soil in the year 1905. The Province of Buenos Ayres, which is the most thickly populated and the wealthiest in the Republic, is also that in which rural property has reached its highest value. In the district of Lobos, a few hours from Buenos Ayres, a field of 170 acres, known as the Atucha Meadow, was sold for £26, 7s. 2d. per acre; another of the same area for £59, 8s. 9d. per acre; another of 635 acres for £12, 1s. 0d. per acre, and another of 587 acres for £14, 4s. per acre. In the region of Rojas, also some hours from the Federal capital, the land on which stood the “San JosÉ,” “Santa Barbara,” and “La Matilde,” establishments belonging to SeÑor Roberto Cano, and whose area was 15,800 acres, was sold for an average price of £8, 8s. per acre. In the neighbourhood of Dolores, not far from Buenos Ayres, a meadow belonging to the “Montes del Tordillo” estate, composed of 18,850 acres, was sold for 19s. 1·4d. per acre. In the section of Lincoln 10,000 acres were sold at prices varying from 48s. to £5, 2s. per acre. At Trenque Lauquen, one of the belts of land in Buenos Ayres which has seen the most rapid rise in values, sales have been effected of 22,000 In this same section, some 8 miles from the railway station of Primera Junta, 1976 acres were in 1907 sold at prices varying from £2, 8s. 3d. to £5, 12s. 9d. At General Pinto the land belonging to the “Filadelfia” estate, 23,198 acres in extent, was sold at an average price per acre of £2, 2s. 9d. In the department of Olavarria 19,856 acres were sold in 1908 for prices varying from £3, 7s. 8d. to £7 per acre, the average being £5. In the department of General Conesa, 11,085 acres, facing the Bay of SÃo Borombon, and 23 miles east from San Dolores, found a buyer at an average price of £1, 3s. 4d. per acre. In the department of Coronel Pringles, the establishment known as El Bombero, situated some 19 miles to the west of Tres Arroyes, divided into thirty-one lots of from 370 to 4940 acres, was sold at prices running from £2, 1s. 11/2d. to £4, 2s. Among these sales of 1908 which attracted most attention were those transacted in the Province of Buenos Ayres. These included a tract at Exaltacion de la Cruz of an area of 914 acres, near the railway station of Cardales, which, sold in small lots of from 58 to 180 acres, obtained an average price per acre of £29.6 per acre. At Lomas de Zamora the land of the establishment “Santa Ines” were sold to the Sansinena Company for £13, 3s. 6d. per acre. In the department of Azul, a meadow known as “La Vanguardia,” of an area of 2080 acres, 11 miles from the town of Azul, found a buyer at £7, 16s, per acre. The San Miguel estate, near the Manzanares railway station, subdivided into thirty-six lots, was sold at an average price of £10, 5s. per acre. On the 19th of August 1908, in the same department, 741 acres fetched a price of £12, 9s. 2d. per acre. At General Belgrano, less than 2 miles from the railway station, 3294 acres, divided into five lots, were sold at prices varying from £8, 11s. to £10, 13s. 10d. A tract of 499 acres about 1000 yards from Jeppener Station, in the department of Brandzen, was sold at the rate of £12, 5s. 9d. Finally, at Burzaco, at a distance of 2500 yards from the station, 494 These are high prices in comparison with those ruling formerly, and at present they are firmly maintained. The prices of lands suitable for agriculture vary greatly, according to their distance from the great city of Buenos Ayres or the port of Bahia Blanca, and their proximity to a railway station; accordingly as they have water near the surface, and are thus adapted to the growth of lucerne; and according to the terms of payment granted by the vendors. There are, of course, other factors as well. Among many other examples, we will cite the 588,050 acres of land at Curumalan, ten hours from Buenos Ayres, the property of a syndicate which bought them in 1903 from Messrs Baring Bros, of London, at a price of £807,575. Up to July the 1st, 1905, this company had sold more than 247,000 acres of land directly to agriculturalists—Russian for the most part—at prices varying from £2, 10s. 8d. to £3, 4s. 1d., allowing them a term of three or four years for payment, plus an interest of 8 per cent, per annum. The Province of CÓrdoba is, after the Province of Buenos Ayres, that in which the land has most rapidly risen in value. Transactions in rural property are very numerous and represent an important figure. In the five years from 1899 to 1903, about 9,386,000 acres have changed hands, and in 1904 alone 3,820,830 acres were sold. It is difficult to give an account of these transactions by reason of their number; but to cite only the most important, we may mention a block of 61,750 acres in the department of Juarez Celman, belonging to Alejandro Roca, which was sold at public auction in the early part of 1905, at prices varying from 17s. 101/2d. to £2, 6s. per acre. In view of the prices which the buyers realised later, they made a splendid bargain; none of them sold for less than double what he gave. In the Union department of the same Province, 59,904 acres were sold at prices varying from 13s. 3d. to £1, 16s. 11d. per acre. Another important sale, effected also in the early part of the same year, was that which took place in the department of Tulumba, fifty miles from the colony and railway station of Morteros on the Central Argentine railway. The block In the Province of Santa FÉ, the appreciation of land values has of late years been neither so great nor so rapid as in Buenos Ayres and CÓrdoba; the reason being that it was this Province which initiated the colonising movement in 1856, by the foundation of the Esperanza Colony, so that its land values had already undergone sudden augmentations in previous years. In the five years from 1899 to 1903, the sales have amounted to £5,831,160 acres, and in 1904 to 2,026,420 acres. In the department of General Lopez 23,487 acres were sold for prices varying between 2s. 4d. and £2, 18s. 3d. We may also note a tract of 8204 acres, 8 miles from La Serna railway station, which in 1908 was sold for £1, 12s. per acre. The Provinces of San Luis and Santiago de l’Estero were the last to take part in this movement of appreciation of land values. The former, in especial, has from this point of view been a revelation to every one. As soon as it was discovered that the soil of this Province was admirably adapted to the formation of splendid meadows of lucerne, its value rapidly rose from 1s. 51/2d. to 6s. 5.7d., 12s. 11d., and 19s. 5d. We must, in particular, mention a meadow known as the “Agualapada,” 98,000 acres in area, which on the 27th of July 1908 was sold at the rate per acre of 5s. 4d. 53,219 acres of land, some 13 miles from the railway stations of Nueva Galia and La Fortuna were bought at an average price of 10s. 3d. per acre. In the department of Pedernera 16,043 acres, divided into five lots, found purchasers at prices varying from 16s. 2d. and £1, 1s. 2d. to £1, 15s. 9d. But, as we have already said, it is in the Pampa—in that vast country of 56,170 square miles in area—larger than England—which was incorporated in 1880, after the expedition led by General Roca—that the most surprising examples of appreciation are to be found. There all is undergoing a continual transformation; each year the plough opens wider furrows for the seed; the sowing of lucerne is rapidly increasing; stock-raising establishments are to be found in In the Pampa Central, of late years, we have seen land suitable for lucerne, with water 10 to 30 feet below the soil, not far from populated centres, and with means of rapid communication, fetch prices which quadrupled those it had touched eighteen months earlier, selling for as much as £3, 11s. 3d. per acre. In more than one case land which was bought for £880 the square league was afterwards sold for £8800. Among the sales of 1908 was one of a meadow of 18,525 acres, six miles from Utracan Station, which, sold by order of the law, fetched a price of 17s. 10d. per acre. In another part of the same Territory 7698 acres were sold in a single lot, on the 1st of October 1908, at the rate of £1, 4s. 7d. per acre. In the Alfalfa Colony, during an auction sale, several chacras, or small farms, attained prices varying from £1, 19s. 3d. to £2, 2s. 9d. per acre. By the Catrilo railway station on the Western Railway, situated in the same Territory of El Pampa, is a field whose owner, M. Mathias R. Sturiza, was offered £61,600 for it; two years earlier he had bought it for £5280. Competent authorities assure us that in the neighbourhood of Santa Rosa de Toay, the capital of the Territory of the Pampa, the value of the fields has been shown by recent sales to have increased by 300 per cent. In the department of Victoria, in the same Territory, fields which a while ago were offered at 2s. 1.5d. per acre, are to-day selling for £1, 1s. 4d.—ten times that sum. Such are the chief manifestations of the economic phenomena of the appreciation of land values; one of the most interesting of the problems which present themselves to the observer of the modern Argentine Republic. Is it a true symptom of national vitality, or must we see in these data the warnings of a period of commercial crisis, characterised, Events, which unroll themselves amidst our feverish Argentine activities far more rapidly than in other countries, will not be long in giving us the answer to these questions. CHAPTER VAGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES Sugar-cane—Area of plantations—Statistics of production—Legislation affecting sugar—Consumption. Vines—Area of vineyards planted—Production, consumption—Imperfect quality—Competition of foreign imports. Tobacco—Area of plantations—Value of the product—Defective preparation. The Mulberry—The culture of the silk-worm might be established in the Argentine, but at present exists only in an experimental condition. MatÉ—Large consumption of this product.—Statistics of foreign importation—Districts suitable for its growth. Cotton—Physical conditions proper to its growth—The first favourable results in the Argentine—Its introduction into Chaco—Lack of manual labour for the development of this industry. Rubber—Existence of rubber plants in the Argentine—An unexploited source of wealth. Arboriculture—On account of the diversity of the climate, all fruit-trees can be grown in the Argentine—The various fruits cultivated in different regions—Amelioration of the products. The trade in fruit—Its development possible on account of the inversion of seasons as compared with Europe—Refrigeration applied to the transport of fruit—Regions particularly suitable for fruit-growing. Besides the culture of cereals, such as wheat and maize and linseed, and the important grazing and cattle-breeding industries of the Argentine, together with their dependent industries, there are other forms of agriculture and forms of natural produce, some of which have already attained a great importance, while others are destined to become equally important in the near future; that is, if the progress of evolution in the Argentine follows, as there is reason to hope, its natural upward course. Sugar-cane.—Among the agricultural industries the culture of the sugar-cane assumes the first rank. The cane is cultivated principally in the Province of Tucuman, in which Province are established the greater number of the sugar factories existing in the Republic. The cane is also Sugar-planting is an industry of considerable antiquity in the Argentine; but it has attained a remarkable development chiefly in the last ten years, owing to the high price of sugar and the establishment of numerous factories equipped with perfected machinery; owing also to the notable profits which the industry offers. The result has been an excess of production, which led the industry into a dangerous crisis, from which it is now in a fair way to recover. Those who suffered the most were those who had abused their credit by building expensive factories and laying down costly plant; and those who had planted sugar in soils unsuited to its culture, or in regions of unfavourable climate, or where the means of transport were insufficient. The total area cultivated in 1907 was estimated at about 172,900 acres, of which 14,029 were in the Province of Tucuman; 11,115 in Southern Chaco; 6916 in Salta; 3952 in Jujuy, and 2717 in Santiago de l’Estero; the rest being divided among various other regions of the Republic; these figures representing an increase of nearly 24,000 acres over those of 1895. These 172,900 acres of cane give an average yield of 30 tons of sugar per hectare, or 11·727 tons per acre, representing a total yield of 132,160 tons of sugar. The greatest number of sugar refineries are to be found in the Province of Tucuman, where there are thirty-two. In the other sugar-growing districts there are only thirteen, which are distributed as follows: Three in Jujuy, two in Santiago de l’Estero, one in Salta, one in MisionÈs, six on the banks of the Parana River, two in Santa FÉ, two in CorrientÈs, one in Chaco, and one in Formosa. The net cost of producing the cane, ready for delivery, is about 5 to 7 centavos The outgoings and receipts on an acre of soil planted with cane may be estimated as follows:—
With an increased consumption of sugar, the culture of the cane will occupy a far greater area of the belt in which it is already established. It is, however, limited by the interests of the manufacturers themselves, who limit production in order to keep up the price of sugar, and so obtain higher profits; sugar of native preparation being protected by laws which strike at the importation of foreign sugar. In 1907 2,498,000 lb. of foreign refined sugar were imported, their value being £181,755; but on the other hand 140,370 lb. were exported during the same year. It is to be hoped that the price of sugar will not fall too low, as this might bring about the ruin of an industry which is worth encouraging and preserving: but it is essential, on the other hand, to oppose an excessive inflation, which would diminish the consumption of this valuable alimentary product, and would force the consumer to pay the exaggerated profits of a small number of manufacturers and planters. This is the inherent peril of excessive protection. The law of 23rd January 1904 and the regulation of 25th October of the same year have provided for this condition. One must not forget that all commerce is conditioned by the law of supply and demand, and that to avoid overloading the market with produce, production must be limited, according to circumstances, and in proportion to actual requirements; and beyond the limit of absorption the productive energies of the country must be diverted to other cultures or industries, more remunerative and more certain as to results. Of all the sugar sold in the Argentine, only part is refined; there is at present only one refinery There are in several districts, and especially in the neighbourhood of MisionÈs, rudimentary factories where an impure sugar known as “rapadura” is prepared, which is sold in cubes or tablets. We have no precise data as to the production of the various grades of sugar. During the last twelve years the manufacture of sugar The capital sunk in the sugar industry in the Province of Tucuman amounts in round figures to £4,136,000, and is distributed as follows: Land, £1,232,000; plantations, £440,000; machinery, £1,496,000; buildings £968,000. It will be as well to give some retrospective data here, which will show how far the production of sugar has developed during the last few years. In another chapter we shall deal with the production of sugar from the industrial point of view. Thus, in 1884 the harvest was 24,000 tons; in 1894, 75,000 tons; and in 1895 it amounted to 109,000 tons, or an increase of 352 per cent. in eleven years. In 1904 the yield was 134,000, or an increase of 360 per cent. over that of 1884. In 1905 it was 137,000 tons; in 1906, 180,000; in 1907, 113,000. We have stated that the Argentine Republic underwent a crisis in the matter of sugar, on account of excessive production; and that like other sugar-producing nations she has had to facilitate the export of the surplus by granting a bounty to exportation. This premium or bounty was conceded in the following manner: a law of 1894 forced the producer to pay 6 centavos per kilogram, or ·576d. per lb. on manufactured sugar; but offered him a bounty of 16 centavos per kilogram—1·536d. per pound—on all sugar exported under certain conditions. This law ceased to be in force on the 31st of December 1904; but was replaced by another, of the 1st of January 1905, by which the manufacturer who did not export 25 per cent. of the sugar he produced paid 15 centavos per kilogram—or 1·44d. per lb.—on a quarter of his produce, or on the proportion which he did not export. These two laws contain a radical difference. By the first, the State received 6 centavos per kilogram upon all sugar manufactured, of which it restored 4 centavos for each kilogram delivered for consumption, and then restored 16 centavos for each kilogram exported; thus keeping to a The consumption of sugar during the eight years 1897-1904 was 780,000 tons, or 97,000 tons per annum. This consumption has not actually been uniform; for instance, in 1897, about 80,000 tons were consumed; while in 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1907, the figures were respectively about 115,000, 162,000, 127,000, and 109,000 tons. Vines.—Another important branch of agriculture in the Argentine is viticulture, which is more especially utilised in the Provinces of Mendoza and San Juan. To give some idea of the development of this branch of agriculture we may state that in 1885 80,376 acres were planted with vines, while to-day the figure is over 139,000. Of this total 74,620 acres are in Mendoza and 30,580 in San Juan. The different species of grape are selected from the best to be found in cultivation in France and other vine-growing countries. The vineyards have been laid out under favourable conditions, yet their product leaves something to be desired. Moreover, bad wines have often been put on the markets, sour wines, and wines adulterated with water, which have discredited the native wines, and have led many to doubt whether the Argentine wine industry can ever really take root. The factor which has chiefly contributed to this disastrous result is the lack of capital from which the industry suffers; Pressed by their liabilities, the Argentine vine-growers hurry over their wine-making, so as to put their wares on the market as quickly as possible, in order to meet their engagements. The general result, apart from exceptions as honourable as few in number, is that the industry produces decoctions of a kind, but not wines. Despite these unfortunate conditions the consumption of the wines of the country has reached a very considerable figure, which fact has greatly contributed, thanks to very heavy customs duties, to the exclusion of foreign wines. In 1899, to go back no further, the total consumption of wine in the Republic was 322,431,166 pints, of which 237,600,000 pints were of wines of the country, and 84,800,000 of foreign wines (not including those imported in bottles). In 1900 304,440,000 pints were consumed; 221,760,000 of native wines and 82,680,000 of foreign wines. In 1901, out of 327,360,000 pints, 242,880,000 were of native and 84,480,000 of foreign wines; in 1904, of a consumption of 373,120,000 pints, 307,000,000 were of native and 66,120,000 of foreign wines. In 1907 the total consumption of wines in the entire Republic, according to the office of National Statistics and Administration of Inland Revenue, amounted to 638,843,680 pints, of which 558,096,000 were of native production and 100,747,680 were imported. The production of native wines is limited, as we have seen, to wines for general consumption. The finer varieties are imported. The consumption of wines of quality in 1907 reveals a considerable increase since the previous year; which is yet another proof in support of the many to be found in this book of the excellent economic and therefore gastronomic conditions of the country. The large and profitable results of the harvests enable the people to place fine wines upon their tables. The customs, which are always a faithful barometer of the degree of well-being which a people enjoys, afford us a proof of what we have affirmed. In 1907 there passed through the customs houses, coming from abroad, 59,520 dozens As we have already seen, the area of the vineyards in existence at the end of 1907 was of 139,132,630 acres, their value being £18,400,000. As for their yield, it amounted to 1,121,523,300 lbs. of grapes, or more than 518,000 tons, with an estimated value of £3,680,000. There are, in the Argentine Republic, 3097 establishments devoted to the exploitation of the vineyards and the making of wine, disposing of a total capital of some £4,320,000. Their products amount to 66,762,000 gallons of wine, representing a value of £4,720,000. If we compare the production of the Argentine with that of the principal nations of the two Americas, we obtain, for the year 1907, the following table:—
The Argentine wine industry, in which millions have been engaged, is, as we see, on the road of progress. It has to-day accomplished a rapid and a very considerable development, which might well, in the near future, eliminate the imported product from the market, at least in the case of wines for ordinary consumption. Like the sugar industry, the wine-growing industry has gone through its crisis. On the one hand the abuse made of credit in establishing warehouses, cellars, and costly plant, and on the other defective methods of manufacture which brought the product into discredit, produced a deep-rooted depression, from which the industry has hardly yet emerged. It cannot look to the future until it perfects its means of This industry, says an eminent writer, gives work to more than 100,000 inhabitants, and represents, as a matter of national wealth, a value in vineyards and factories of some £19,000,000; it produces annually £4,840,000 worth of merchandise, contributes £6,950,000 to the general trade, and surpasses in importance, both in the capital employed and in its products, the sugar industry of the country, which in 1907 manufactured sugar only to the value of £2,772,000. Tobacco.—For a long time the tobacco-plant has been cultivated in the Argentine; for we find, in various zones, conditions very favourable to its production; but its culture has by no means as yet acquired the importance of which it is capable, and is very far from satisfying the needs of national consumption. The exports are insignificant: 37,983 lb. in 1906, and 16,612 lb. in 1907, of the respective values of £539 and £226. The lack of care brought to the cultivation of the plant and to the preparation of the leaf, together with incomplete experience from the industrial point of view, have contributed to check the increase of plantations, which ought to occupy a far larger area than they do. Tobacco is grown chiefly in the northern region composed of the Provinces of CorrientÈs, Salta, and Tucuman; it is also grown to a less extent in the Provinces and Territories of MisionÈs, Formosa, Chaco, Catamarca, La Rioja, and Jujuy. It may be grown equally well in the central region composed of the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, Santa FÉ, and CÓrdoba; and even further south. There were formerly, and are still, tobacco plantations in the Province of Buenos Ayres, which appeared to promise a fair future for tobacco-planting; but all is as yet in a rudimentary condition, and the industry makes no appreciable progress. The areas planted with tobacco in 1895 and 1907 were as follows:—
The agricultural census of 1895 affirmed the existence of 3348 acres of tobacco in CÓrdoba, while the Bulletin of the Division of Statistics at the Ministry of Agriculture announced only 1729 acres; in short, everything leads to the conclusion that we have to deal either with gross blunders or with erroneous information. As it has not been practicable for us to verify these figures we must suppose that in 1895 there was not so large an area planted as the figures would lead us to believe. The Mulberry.—The culture of the mulberry-tree should perhaps be included in that of industrial crops, since its leaves are the food of the silkworm. From the time of the Spanish Conquest, says Carlos Girola, the engineer, our competent guide in the matter of industrial crops, the silkworm was raised in the Province of Cuyo, and silk was woven there on the hand-loom; but, on account of the facilities of transport, imported silks brought such a competition to bear upon the hand-made native article that the silkworm industry gradually dwindled and finally became extinct. Numerous experiments have of late years proved that the silkworm can be raised over a great part of the country; and that it has the best chances of development where the population is densest, labour most abundant, and the houses of the workers largest and most comfortable, as in the Provinces of Buenos Ayres (North) and Santa FÉ, and in parts The mulberry-tree grows and flourishes excellently on the greater portion of the Argentine soil, and especially in the central and northern districts, where it springs up quickly and vigorously. It is greatly to be desired that it should be more widely cultivated, and that its wider cultivation should go hand in hand with the development of the sericultural industry, which in some countries constitutes one of the principal sources of wealth. The mulberry also furnishes an excellent wood, and its leaves may be used to feed cattle as well as silkworms. Instead of planting trees which are of no industrial use, the mulberry should be given the place of preference. Yerba MatÉ.—The “yerba matÉ,” or matÉ shrub, is met with in the woods of MisionÈs, where it grows in irregular clumps of varying extent. It has been known since the time of the Jesuits, who were the first to plant and cultivate it, as is proved by the plantations which to this day exist in the territory of the Argentine Missions (MisionÈs). With the leaf of this plant infusions are made, as with tea, coffee, cocoa, etc. The matheine contained in the leaves is possessed of properties at once tonic and stimulating. The infusion of “yerba matÉ” is usually made in a receptacle shaped like a pear with an orifice at the smaller end;
We have no information respecting the national production of matÉ, but we have every reason to suppose that it does not exceed 11,000,000 lb.; that is, between a ninth and a tenth of the quantity consumed. There is thus a vast field of development for this branch of agriculture, especially in the Territory of MisionÈs, which offers all the conditions favourable to the culture of the plant. Encouraged by these figures, and by the desire to replace the forests of ilex, destroyed by improvident exploitation, attempts have been made to develop the culture of matÉ; and the first results appear to augur well for the future of this undertaking. M. Thays, Director of the Parks and Promenades of Buenos Ayres, to whom we owe the floral and arboreal embellishment of the Argentine metropolis, was the first to overcome the obstacles to the artificial culture of the matÉ shrubs from the seed. The development of the plant is fairly rapid; the plucking of the leaves may be commenced at the end of six years, and sometimes earlier: the treatment necessary for its cultivation is very much that demanded by ordinary orchard trees. Its longevity is great, and so far it is not known to be subject to any disease. The cultivation of matÉ may spread beyond the Territory of MisionÈs, into the favourable soil of CorrientÈs, Chaco, and Formosa; possibly into other parts of the northern and central regions; and it may give way to a more intensive culture. M. Thays has obtained specimens of matÉ from seed in the Botanical Garden of Buenos Ayres, where he has grown it in the open air. Cotton.—Of the various territories of the Argentine, none lend themselves so well as Chaco, Formosa, and MisionÈs to the cultivation of the cotton-plant; not only by reason of their climatic conditions, but also on account of the composition of their soil. The cotton-plant is indigenous to the islands and sea-coasts of the Tropics, and its geographical limits of cultivation, on either side of the Equator, run to 40° of latitude in the north, and in the south to about 30°, but never as far south as 35° or 40°, in spite of the probable suitability of those latitudes. The plant hardly suffers from the greatest heats of a tropical summer, while very cold weather interrupts its organic functions. It requires a hot, moist atmosphere for its development, but the moisture must not be excessive, or the plant will grow too rapidly. It is doubtless thanks to these natural conditions that cotton-planting attained to a certain degree of development in the Territories of Chaco, Formosa, and MisionÈs as soon as the tillers of the soil became aware of its profitable nature. The cultivation of this valuable textile is not, however, new to this country. It was grown long ago, chiefly in MisionÈs, during the administration of the Jesuit Fathers, who made from it cloth for their own use, and also for purposes of trade. But with the expulsion of the members of the celebrated Company of Jesus, and the resulting depopulation of the countryside, decadence overcame this branch of agriculture, and finally an almost total extinction, until to the people of the country it was no more than a memory. Finally, in 1894, cotton was sown as an experiment in the Territory of Formosa; a few grains of the “Louisiana” and “Sea-Island” types, brought from the United States. The results were excellent, and encouraged the sowing of larger areas. There are now, in the various colonies founded in Chaco, which grow practically nothing but cotton, some 13,600 acres under cotton. It may to-day be asserted, says an official report, that Chaco is in the van of the Republic in the production of cotton; by reason of the area under cultivation, the quantity of cotton picked at each That the reader may form some idea of the future in store, during the economic development of the Argentine, for the cultivation and exploitation of cotton, he need only refer to the following calculation as to its results. The land in Chaco given over to cotton yields, in good years, an average crop per acre of 1785 lb. of cotton “in the pod”—that is, fibre and seed together. Selling the cotton at the very low price of ·96d. per lb.—and the present price of cotton runs to 1·16d., 1·44d., and 1·65d. per lb.—the minimum yield would be £7, 2s. per acre, even with prices as low as we have indicated. As for working expenses, they do not exceed £4, 5s. 6d. per acre, unless by some trifling sum, according to locality; so that the average profit would be about £2, 16s. per acre. This is the cost of production of an acre planted with cotton during the first year. Later the expenses diminish by 25 per cent., so that the net profit might reach £3, 11s. 3d. per acre. One of the great obstacles in the way of the full development of this industry is to be found in the lack of hands indispensable for the minute and delicate operations connected with gathering the crop. It has even happened, during the last few years, that in certain districts as much as 3s. 7d. per cwt. has been offered for selected cotton, and in others as much as a third of the results of the harvest. But we may be sure that when the native farmer and the foreign agriculturalist once awaken to the extraordinary profits which cotton yields, its production will assume a far larger scale. As the growers have to deal with an industrial branch of agriculture in process of establishment it has not yet been possible to draw from it all the profit that is secured in other countries: cotton-seed, for example, in the United States especially, is a considerable source of wealth, but in the Argentine the growers have scarcely begun to utilise it by the extraction of its oil. But there is a beginning: several mills have lately been established for this purpose. The agronomic expert Macial has justly remarked that we only require spinning-mills and looms for the cycle of the cotton industry in Chaco to attain its completion. Rubber.—Another source of forestal wealth in the Argentine, and one which is for the moment unexploited,—principally because of local depopulation and a lack of means of transport—is the extraction of the rubber contained in certain tropical plants. Lately, for example, competent observers have discovered that the true rubber-plant, the Ficus elastica, exists in abundance in the north-east of the Republic, and in the Provinces of Salta and Jujuy, between 23° and 26° of south latitude, and 62° and 66° of west longitude. It is this tree which has given such value to the Brazilian territory of Acre and to various other regions of Brazil. Various plants yield rubber: one species, of a family known as “lecherones,” grows in the darkest and dampest parts of the forest; others, called “heveas” in Brazil, are much thinner in the stem; and finally there is a third kind, the “liane” or rubber vine. The first variety, that of the “lecherones,” gives a yield of 171/2 to 22 lbs. of gum per annum; there are forest lands containing as many as 50,000 plants to the square league—over 5000 to the square mile—while the poorest districts produce 2000 to the league. Considering the present high prices of rubber, we may obtain some idea of the great wealth of this region. The method of exploitation is easy and simple; the country is indubitably healthy, and with labourers paid at the rate of 3s. 7d. to 15s. 9d. a day a considerable profit would remain. To-day men of initiative are busily seeking to exploit Arboriculture.—There is another kind of culture which is destined in the future, although at present it has only the smallest importance, to become an industry of considerable moment; the culture, namely, of orchard trees, of which we must mention the rapid progress. Given the immense area of Argentine territory, endowed with the most varied climates, from the snows of Tierra del Fuego to the semi-tropical heat of CorrientÈs and Jujuy; from the temperate warmth of the coast to the more relaxing temperatures of the mountains of CÓrdoba or the Andean frontier, and containing land at all altitudes above the level of the sea, it is not to be wondered at that all the fruit-bearing trees of the world can live and flourish in the Republic. In the northern region, and especially in CorrientÈs, Tucuman, Salta, La Rioja, Catamarca, Jujuy, Formosa, Chaco, and MisionÈs, there are to-day groves of oranges, mandarins, lemons and limes of various kinds, figs, and pomegranates. At Tucuman and Salta “chirimoyos” and “paltas” are cultivated. Almonds, olives, Barbary figs, ananas or bread-fruit, bananas and “guayabos” may also be grown in this region; but unhappily the fruit-growing industry is at a standstill, on account of the lack of labour which is so great a difficulty in all departments of the industrial and economic life of the Argentine. In the central region we also find the mandarin or tangerine (in the north of Entre Rios and Santa FÉ), lemons (in Entre Rios, Santa FÉ, and Buenos Ayres), the grape-vine, especially in Mendoza and San Juan, and also in La Rioja, Salta, Catamarca, CÓrdoba, Santa FÉ, Entre Rios, and Buenos Ayres. Peaches, prunes, apricots, cherries, apples, pears, quinces, medlars, and figs are grown in all these districts, and chiefly in the Province of Buenos Ayres, and the islands of the delta of the Parana. In the same region we also find almonds, walnuts, hazel-nuts, and chestnuts, but grown on a small scale only. There is a fair production of lemons; and the olive grows well under favourable conditions. In the southern region there is no fruit grown, except on a few estates in the Rio Negro and in the valley of Chubut. Yet peaches, apricots, prunes, cherries, apples, and pears will flourish in certain localities; while walnuts, filberts and chestnuts might be grown on an enormous scale on the Andean slopes, where the rains are more frequent and the atmosphere more humid. Up to the present time, on account of the large profits made by those engaged in agriculture and stock-raising, and above all on account of the insufficiency of the population, which is the prime cause of which we have already spoken, the industry of fruit-farming has been practically ignored, and what little has been undertaken has followed no definite plan, such as the careful selection of stocks and slips and saplings, the preparation of the soil, and the efficient protection of the trees. But in spite of all, very satisfactory results have been obtained, which have revealed the fertility of the soil and the excellence of the climate. But quite lately we have seen a remarkable development in this branch of agriculture, which seems to promise a fruit-growing industry comparable to that of other and more advanced countries than the Argentine. To-day, according to Girola, This being the case, it follows that the fruit-farmer is gradually acquiring rational methods, which will soon attest to their beneficent influence by transforming the old orchard-plantations, which were with reason described as forests of The cultivation of fruit-trees is far from occupying its proper rank among Argentine industries. It is distributed in an irregular fashion; some kinds of fruit-trees abound in certain districts and are rare or unknown in others; and it is impossible for growers in the latter districts to obtain them at profitable rates, on account of the difficulty and scanty means of transport. As for the fruit trade, it has hitherto been very limited, and confined almost exclusively to the sale of fresh fruit, as with the exception of the factory of the “Tiger Packing Company” and a few others, which prepare canned peaches, etc., in syrup, all growers of fruit for public consumption offer it for sale only in the fresh state. Yet amid the feverish activity which characterises the present situation in the Argentine, the fruit trade receives a greater impulse each year; not only in the matter of home consumption, which has been popularised by the aid of such companies as the “Co-operative Fruticola,” which endeavours to supply the consumer with articles of the first quality at reasonable prices, but also in the matter of export to large foreign cities. The export of fresh fruit should soon form an important branch of commerce in the Argentine, as it does already in the United States and in other countries. In the matter of a fresh-fruit trade with foreign countries the Argentine is particularly favoured by circumstances; for on account of her geographical position she is able to profit by the inversion of the seasons with regard to Europe; that is, by placing summer fruits on the European markets in the middle of the northern winter. Another advantage which the Argentine will enjoy on these markets is the fact that she has to reckon with no formidable competitors; for those countries that might dispute her place, such as Profiting by the admirable physical advantages of the country, once this trade has obtained the indispensable assistance of rapid and convenient steamers, with special holds or refrigerating chambers for the storage of large quantities of fresh fruit, we are certain that it will not have long to wait for profitable results. Several years ago one of the authors of this book sent to Messrs Garcia, Jacobs & Company, of London, as a commercial sample, a batch of peaches preserved by chilling, and according to the testimony of these merchants the peaches of Buenos Ayres may well be the subject of a successful business, provided that fruit of the superior varieties be produced. Entering into detail, Messrs Garcia & Jacobs added that the best qualities sent had sold satisfactorily; they ended by stating that consignments reaching London in the months of March, April, and May should yield considerable profits. After this experiment many others were made by various persons, until finally, thinking the moment had come for establishing the fruit trade on a solid and lasting basis, the Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company determined to fit their steamers with special “chilled” chambers or holds for the transport of fresh fruit. The first consignments have not been completely satisfactory, as in this trade, which is now being undertaken on a very large scale, every one has a great deal to learn; from the producer, who plants the varieties of fruits which he thinks most suitable for export, the farm labourer, who gathers the fruit, and the man who packs it in special cases, down to the steamship company, which has to confide the care of the refrigerating plant and the holds to a competent technician, whose duty it is to maintain a constant The exhibitions of fruit which the Government of the Republic organises annually, with much practical good sense, have greatly helped to attract attention to the fruit-growing industry, and at the same time to stimulate competition and improvement. These exhibitions have been a veritable revelation to everybody, for very few people suspected that the Argentine produced so great a variety of the best species of fruit-bearing trees; or that she could rival other countries in the matter of production. The fresh-fruit trade is not, in the Argentine, as it is in the United States, favoured by the existence of refrigerator cars, placed at the disposal of the producers by the railway companies, and capable of transporting enormous quantities of fruit from one end of the country to the other. But this innovation, like so many others demanded by industry and commerce, will come in time, when the population has increased, and new markets will be permanently opened to the producer. At the present time such fruits as are intended for home consumption, like those selected for exportation, have not far to travel before reaching their destination, as they are usually grown near Buenos Ayres; particularly the peach, which is the fruit most in demand on account of its superior quality. Although the entire Argentine territory lends itself admirably to the production of fruit, there are particular districts which by nature are especially fitted for the plantation of fruit-trees. Among such districts we may cite the islands which form the delta of the Parana, which are covered with an extremely rich soil and magnificent growths, and are irrigated during certain seasons of the year by the waters of the river, which deposit on them a richly nutritious silt, like that which the famous waters of the Nile leave upon its Egyptian banks. There flourish a great variety of fruit-trees, from peach and apricot, pear and apple, fig and quince, down to the “diospiro kaki,” and many other species. Another region which has commenced to attract attention As we see from these data, fruit-farming is making rapid progress in the Argentine: it may succeed in time in capturing not only the home markets, but also the most important foreign markets. As for the preparation of fresh fruit in syrup, as well as the manufacture of dried fruits, both of them industries well developed in the United States, they still exist in the Argentine only in a rudimentary condition; but in view of the rapid progress achieved each year in the Argentine, in this as in other industries, we may hope that they will soon develop and establish themselves securely. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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