In 1875 the value of the principal Argentine Agricultural Exports was but 114,557 gold dollars; in 1913 the value of these exports was 307,520,854 gold dollars. In 1892 the total of the cultivated areas of the Republic was only 580,008 hectares; in 1912 there were 22,987,726 hectares under cultivation3, this figure not including the pasturage improved with foreign grasses. The first ten kilometres of railway line in the River Plate Territories were laid in Argentina in 1857, now the extent of lines in that Republic is over 21,000 miles, and that in Uruguay over 1590 miles, making a total for both Republics of over 22,500 miles, or rather less than the total length (23,350 miles) of the lines in Great Britain. And new lines and extensions are projected in all directions and will prove profitable.
It must not, however, be taken for granted by the above juxtaposition4 that the railroad has been the whole and direct cause of agricultural extension. That many other causes have been at work is evident since River Plate agriculture and export flourished long before the railway was dreamed of anywhere. During the early years of its life in the River Plate Republics the railroad was busily enough occupied in the endeavour to serve districts already under cultivation;[216] and it is only in very recent times that one of the great English Companies adopted the, even then much criticized, policy of extensions to secure in advance a sphere of future cultivation. It may be added that no adverse5 criticism of this policy (but only approving admiration) came from anyone practically capable of forming an opinion of the agricultural prospects7 on which it was soundly based.
Still, Argentine railway enterprise in general is conservative in that it rather waits on than seeks to create a demand for its services; so that the rule in these matters on the River Plate continues to be that the railway very cautiously follows the lead of other progress and enterprise, and much rich land in the more distant Provinces and National Territories lies fallow waiting for the railway, while the railway is waiting till actual production guarantees the immediate8 profit of new lines at handsome rates.
Time will solve this sort of deadlock9 as it does other things; but to most people, other than railway directors, its existence seems to indicate a lack of commercial courage and energy. They manage some of these things, in some respects, better in the United States.
At the same time it must be owned that the existing railway policy protects the countries now under discussion from many of the greater evils of local land booms and speculation10 in Town lots; which in early North American days often left little but disillusionment as the share of inexperienced speculators and paved the way for equally disastrous11 railway competition.
In Argentina and Uruguay, particularly in the former Republic, the great Railway Companies form something really very like the Imperium in Imperio that the Argentines say they do. Their General Managers are quite as much diplomatic Ministers Plenipotentiary as they are actual Managers of railroads; and, consequently, require qualifications of which the chiefs of even our greatest British systems have no need. The work of a General Manager of[217] a great River Plate railway system lies a good deal at Government House and with the leading men and politicians of the country. He must know how best to protect the vested interests of his Company and to pave the way for new developments in competition with newly arrived applicants12 and existing competitors. For such purposes he must combine firmness, serenity13 in protest if need be, with urbanity and the power to be all pleasant things to all men whose good-will is or may possibly be of use to his Company. The slight diversion of a projected new line is a small price to pay for the easy passage through Congress of the scheme of a whole important extension. A scheme which may menace the aspirations14 of an existing competitor or an expectant rival concessionnaire; either of whom may also command some “influence.”
All this, however, however true, is a digression from the question under immediate discussion, namely, to what extent the railway has been a cause or an effect of the spread of agriculture in the River Plate. The real answer to this question appears to be that both the railway in these countries and the agriculture have inter-aided and are inter-dependent on one another in the inevitable15 development of a prosperity fore-ordained by a prodigality17 of natural endowment.
Comparing the figures representing the cultivable area of these Republics with those relating to the parts already under cultivation, one can see why extensive farming is only just now giving way to intensive systems in those districts the situation of which, in relatively18 close proximity19 to the great port of Buenos Aires, combined with the natural fertility of their soil, has rendered them the most valuable of all the lands in the Argentine and Uruguayan Republics. The capital valuation of these lands is now so high, especially in the Province of Buenos Aires, that all means must be adopted which will enhance their annual productivity. In other parts it is often cheaper to put more land under[218] cultivation than to lay out capital in improved working of that already in hand. As facilities for transport and the population grow, so will the need for intensive farming, in gradually increasing complexity20, be more and more felt and complied with throughout both Republics.
Contemporaneous with such advance will be the gradual development of those products, other than wheat, linseed, maize21 and alfalfa (to which the whole available agricultural energies of these countries have till now been almost exclusively confined), for which the natural conditions of one part or another of the two Republics are eminently22 favourable24—such as Cotton, Tobacco, Timber, Rice, Sugar and, perhaps, Coffee.
To quote a pamphlet recently issued by the Argentine Government:—
There are vast tracts25 of land available for the cultivation of sugar cane26. … With the investment of large amounts of money and an increase in the area cultivated this industry will no doubt in a few years be able to supply fully27 the demand and have a surplus of 50 per cent over for exportation.
This statement, notwithstanding the rather quaint28 English of the official translator, has already nearly been proved true, and might have become so in actual practice several years ago. To quote again from the same pamphlet and with a similar endorsement29 of its statements:—
In the extensive regions existing in Salta, Jujuy, the Chaco, Formosa, Misiones, Corrientes and Tucumán (the last-named with 300,000 hectares admirably adapted for sowing sugar cane) the area cultivated will gradually increase.
It should and certainly will do so at some future time. When, depends chiefly, as do many, if not most, other agricultural developments on the River Plate, on increase of population.
In the meantime the Argentine National Ministry30 of Agriculture has done much good work towards stimulating31 interest in the undoubtedly32 great possibilities of cotton,[219] tobacco and rice cultivation. The cultivation of cotton is no new idea on the River Plate. It could hardly be so when there are large districts so evidently and admirably adapted for this crop. The reasons why several former well-meant attempts at cotton growing in Argentina were unsuccessful were the difficulties of obtaining and keeping adequate labour, and a too great reliance on the bounty33 of nature unaided by much human science. Selection and just appreciation34 of the time for gathering35 were matters which did not receive sufficient attention, and a great obstacle certainly was the difficulty of obtaining labour in sparsely36 populated districts, in which the necessities of life are procurable37 by all with a minimum of effort. The natives fancied they were being exploited if they did not get commercially impossible rates of wages for what appeared to them extremely arduous38 and unwontedly continuous and careful work. Work of the satisfactory execution of which, moreover, their primitive39 mentality40 was not really capable.
Even now River Plate cotton growing will need to be largely aided by imported or colonist41 labour. Given that and due scientific management and care, applied42 in the first place to the selection of the seed most suitable to the soil and climate, there is no sort of reason why River Plate cotton should not occupy a highly remunerative43 place in the world’s markets, where cotton is always in increasingly large demand.
Many districts in the Argentine Provinces of Corrientes, Santa Fé, Salta, Tucumán, Catamarca and La Rioja and in the National Territories of Misiones, Formosa and the Chaco are eminently suited for cotton cultivation.
It will be observed that Argentina alone is almost always here referred to in connection with these secondary (as they still are) products of the River Plate countries. The reason for this is that, while many parts of Uruguay are equally well suited for their growth, the latter Republic is, owing to her later continuance of civil disturbance44, in a less advanced[220] condition than Argentina in regard to extensive development of the great primary industries of cereal cultivation and stock breeding.
Tentative and apparently45 successful cultivation of better classes of tobacco has already been commenced in the Province of Buenos Aires and official drying sheds have been erected46 in each of the Provinces of Tucumán, Salta and Corrientes and the National Territory of Misiones. These facilities should greatly stimulate47 the increase of production and improvement of quality of the leaf in those, the most climatically appropriate, districts. Even if they should not confer on the growers the “moral and intellectual” benefits explicitly48 expected from them by the aforementioned translator.
As for rice, even if the question of export be reserved for future consideration, there is an enormous local demand which could very well and profitably be supplied locally.
Experimental cultivation of this crop in large and suitably watered areas of the Provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Rios and Córdoba has proved the ease with which it could be grown in them.
Another crop in universal demand in both Argentina and Uruguay is MATE, or “Paraguayan Tea,” the leaf of the Ilex Paraguayensis. This shrub49 grows wild in the Territory of Misiones and in the Republics of Paraguay and Brazil; and Argentina and Uruguay import it from the latter countries to annual values of several millions of gold dollars. The cultivation of mate yerba only presents difficulty and risk of loss during the very earliest periods of its growth; but study has now shown how to avoid most, at any rate, of such risks, so that it has become an absurdity50 that such an article of universal daily, indeed hourly, consumption in both of the countries under consideration should not be grown by them in districts so suited for the cultivation of this shrub that they have become its home in a perfectly51 wild condition.
[221]
Wherever one goes in Argentina and Uruguay the MATE (as the small gourd52 in which the infusion53 of the dust-like YERBA—“herb”—is made, and from which it is sucked up through a special tube called the “bombilla” from its perforated, bulb-shaped end) is omnipresent and usually in working evidence in the hands of one or other member of the household throughout the livelong day.
Mate is a stimulant54 of great sustaining and stomachic qualities; and its use is not followed by the depression which follows excessive tea and coffee drinking. A River Plate peon will go from daybreak to midday, riding or doing physically55 hard work the whole while, on nothing more than a hunch56 of bread or a “biscuit” (a hard, dry maize-flour roll) and a few small mates. With sugar, mate is very palatable57 and the taste soon develops into a habit, but in the camp it is usually drunk “bitter,” that is, without sugar, both from motives58 of economy and because it is popularly supposed to be healthier and more sustaining when taken in that way.
At any rate, there can be no doubt that mate growing must one day become a very large and profitable industry in the Northern parts, where the climate is suitably mild, of the two Republics.
The Jesuit Fathers, from whom the Territory of Misiones derives59 its name, were well aware of the wholesome60 qualities of mate yerba, and it is possible that the now wild growth of the shrub in that Territory owes its existence to their cultivation.
In connection with their primarily great agricultural industries, the wheat, maize and linseed crops which will always remain a chief pillar of their prosperity (even if stock-raising on the present huge scale should be reduced by the encroachment61 of agricultural or, as is most likely, mixed farming; or if the Andine regions prove as rich in minerals as some people would have us believe), the River Plate Republics must always occupy positions of ever-increasing[222] weight and importance on the cereal markets of the world.
The world wants meat, but it must have bread, the true staff of human life. Signs are not wanting of the coming of a day when the majority of the human race will be forced into vegetarianism62 by the growing scarcity63 of meat; but the time when wheat shall be no longer obtainable by the multitude is so much farther off on the speculative64 horizon as to be a negligible factor in any but abstract contemplation. As for live stock, most middle-aged65 people to-day can retrace66 in their own memories the decline of the meat exports of the United States; where a rapid growth of population and spread of agriculture have so increased the local consumption and diminished the supply that the States not only now eat all their own meat, but already import from Argentina and Uruguay.
When the latter countries arrive at a similar stage of their development, as they must do one day, from whence will they and the rest of the world get meat supplies? Even the greatest and most terrible war the world has ever known has not reduced the population of the globe to an extent which will do more than very temporarily, if practically at all, affect the question of its future food supplies.
Recently the reproductive capacities of the existing Argentine and Uruguayan flocks and herds67 were brought almost to a standstill in respect of the increase of their numerical value; chiefly on account of the ever-increasing demands and high prices paid by the Cold Storage Export Companies.[37] And purely68 economic reasons cause more and more land each year to be put under cereal cultivation while numerically large flocks and herds are pushed further into less accessible regions of the Republics, on the boundaries of which vast quantities of finely bred animals already graze.
[223]
More transport (and labour), more cereals; more cereals, less live stock: will be the rule of these Countries’ progress, following that of the great Northern Republic. A rule which mixed and intensive farming will only modify in a degree quite incommensurate with the experiences of an ever and rapidly increasing demand.
The future of both Argentina and (later on) Uruguay appears to be bound up in their cereal production (of which wheat, maize, linseed and oats are now the chief elements).
I say appears, because the Andes may yet yield marvellous mineral treasure; good coal may yet be discovered; it and the petroleum69 deposits of Comodoro Rivadavia and elsewhere may yet provide fuel for manufacturing industry; and the River Plate Republics may yet become the great pig-producing countries of the world, as a United States expert once prophesied70 to the present writer that one day they would be. But all these things, even if the future do hold them in store, are beyond the perceptibly practical horizon; while the already preponderating71 influence of cereal production on the destinies of Argentina is immediately evident. Argentina practically supplies the world with linseed.
Uruguay is still in the infancy72 of its agriculture. It has as yet but some two million acres of cultivated land as against some thirty million acres of pasturage. But the world’s demands will doubtless lead it on the same course as that imposed on the United States and Argentina; modified, perhaps, to some extent by the more undulating nature of its lands as compared with the flat Pampa. Again, Uruguay is much richer in running streams than is Argentina; which latter country is but sparsely provided with water courses, especially in dry weather.
During the course of the last decade the value of the cereals exported from the River Plate tripled.
The great areas of cereal cultivation are the Provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fé, Córdoba and Entre Rios and the[224] National Territory of the Pampa Central. Cereal growing in Uruguay is still chiefly confined to the Southern Departments of that country.
Nevertheless, Uruguayan wheat has received special quotations73 as the highest quality of any in the European markets; and “Montevideo wheat,” as it is called, is much purchased by Argentine exporters to mix with their own grain. The cultivation of alfalfa (lucerne) is also increasing with enormous rapidity, both for home consumption and export; and is likely to show still greater proportionate increase as mixed and intensive farming grow in favour.
Economic necessity may also soon increase the cultivation of this valuable plant as an alternate crop on, and restorative for, the exhausted74 soil of many districts where wheat has been grown on wheat since, one might almost say, time immemorial.
Wheat, as all the agricultural world knows, absorbs the nitrogen from the soil on which it is grown; while alfalfa, on the other hand, absorbs nitrogen from the air and deposits it in the soil. These two crops are therefore, as was found out long ago in North America, naturally complementary. And a course of alfalfa prepares ground for the replanting of wheat in a way unequalled by the most expensive artificial fertilizers. The time will therefore doubtless come when Argentine farmers will plough up such of their alfalfa as may be on suitable ground and plant wheat thereon; and, contrariwise, will plough up their wheat and give the ground two or three years of alfalfa before putting wheat on it again.
But this is still, to the vast majority of Argentine farmers, an absurdly impracticable counsel of perfection. Since, does one think, he asks, that he is going to spoil his alfalfa fields, soon after seeing them pass through the critical stage of their tap-roots reaching water, and break his ploughs into the bargain by cutting those thick, tough roots up again? Not he. Alfalfa it is now and alfalfa it is going to remain;[225] to yield him four or even more cuttings annually75. Only time and ever-growing land values will force this kind of reasoning out of his mind. He, in the more distant parts of the country at all events, is still in the stage of mentality when what were good enough methods for his forefathers76 are good enough for him. Nature has been kind to him. He has always reaped much benefit from little labour or capital outlay77; and this state of things suits his nature so well that he is altogether disinclined to vary it by following theories which do not appeal to him, be they preached never so wisely by the ambulant Agricultural Instructors78 employed by the Government to travel about the country and teach improved methods to its rural inhabitants. The deaf ear which even the very well-to-do among what may be called the peasant proprietors79, the little-educated rural classes, that is to say, turn to the teachings of modern science is due to the fact that these people have long been too much spoilt by nature’s gifts of highly fertile soil and favourable climate to perceive any very pressing need to bestir themselves to unaccustomed expenditure80 of energy or money.
Thus, as is told elsewhere in these pages, thousands of head of cattle and sheep die each time a drought occurs simply because their owners will not go to the trouble and expense of boring for water (seldom far from the surface) and putting up windmills to draw it.
Education and economic pressure will in due course end this era of dolce far niente; which is doomed81 to disappear from even the most outlying of rural districts as surely as the traditional Ma?ana has from the business communities of the great cities. Nowadays, a denizen82 of Buenos Aires who scents83 a good stroke of business will pursue and capture it with a rapidity and real vigour84 which would not shame a citizen of the United States. Only, the Argentine will always conceal85 his haste under an affected86 outburst of boisterous87 humour or an equally assumed dilatoriness88 of manner. He will, in fact, be politer about it than the[226] Northerner. But he will get there all the same. So will the agriculturist, comparatively untutored as he still often is, once he realizes his own advantage in the matter; as circumstances eventually will force him to do.
Just now the River Plate countries are faced with an exceptionally acute phase of the problem of their increased agricultural expansion; the governing factor of that problem, indeed the whole cause of it, being their lack of adequate rural population.
To appreciate this inadequacy89 one must realize that the Argentine Republic alone is only a very little smaller than Germany, Austro-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Switzerland put together; while her population is only some 7,500,000. Of this over a million is in the city of Buenos Aires; and the other cities such as Rosario, Bahia Blanca and the Provincial90 capitals account for another.
Even were the whole 7,500,000 equally spread over the Republic, we should only get an average of 6·5 per square mile, as against some 193 per square mile as the average of the other countries named above for comparison of area. Uruguay has a considerably91 larger population (and, it may be added, railway mileage), to the square mile than Argentina; but even then it has only some 1,200,000 inhabitants, or about half the number possessed92 by the Province of Buenos Aires.
Unless this state of things be remedied, it would appear as if the hitherto rapid advance of both agriculture and stock-breeding in these countries must soon reach a point beyond which they can no further go for want of hands to sow, reap and carry crops and rear and tend cattle and sheep! This situation is not a perfectly new one in modern economic history; but it may safely be called new in degree when it is found in countries where all other natural conditions are normally so entirely93 favourable to uninterrupted rural production. In countries not (as yet at all events) directly[227] involved in Armageddon; and while so much of the rest of the world urgently needs every grain of wheat and every ounce of meat they can possibly send out.
Great irrigation works now in progress will open up further vast and almost unprecedentedly94 fertile areas for cultivation; which areas railway lines are practically ready and waiting to serve with transport and for which new ports are in course of construction while existing ones are being enlarged and improved. New agricultural laws have been passed to meet difficulties which have arisen with already increased production and land values; everything in fact has been done and is being done to second and enhance nature’s gifts.
But the question, “Where are the human beings necessary to an advantageous95 result of and to benefit by all these preparations?” still remains96 unanswered; except by the apparently very stubborn fact that they have not yet appeared on the River Plate and show no signs of doing so.
At the present moment the outlook from this state of things reveals only a tangled97 problem, in view of the awful wastage of human life now going on in Europe. But for its occurrence and continuance before the war the Governments of Argentina and Uruguay are almost wholly to blame, and that of the former country in much the greater degree. This because, while Uruguay may be said to have only just emerged from a long period of internal political disturbance which necessarily absorbed all the time and energies of her statesmen, Argentine politics long ago reached their destined98 haven99 of sunlit, calm waters.
Argentina has spent much trouble and money in propaganda; in all sorts of publications giving true and therefore favourable statistics of her ever-increasing rural industries, trade and prosperity. But—and this cannot be insisted on too often for her own good and for Uruguay’s example—she has never even seemed to trouble herself about suitable people who might be attracted by the perusal100 of her statistics[228] and pamphlets to wish to know more of her and of their exact individual prospects did they decide to set sail for her shores.
Like so many of the good laws and schemes in which this country abounds101, everything concerning prospective102 colonists103 is excellently arranged and set down on paper; but nothing is yet in really practical working order for the reception and assignment of land to the real colonist, the man most needed in new countries, bringing with him a small capital which he wishes to invest in a holding which will be the future home of himself and his family.
It seems a hard saying, but I hold it truth that the only provision yet made has been, and is, for the reception and despatch104 upcountry of the very poorest class of immigrants; glad to get a job at manual labour of any kind, and therefore at the mercy of the landowners who still really govern this pretendedly ultra-democratic Republic.
It is—whether accidentally or of set purpose is needless to discuss here—in point of fact through the influence of landed proprietors, and through their influence alone, that the elaboration and putting into practice of existing colonization105 schemes and laws lie fallow; while poor immigrants, by a seemingly cynical106 courtesy, called “Colonists,” are granted the privilege of a share in any immediate profits to be derived107 from breaking up virgin108 soil from which they will be turned off practically as soon as it begins to yield—to commence a similar operation elsewhere if they care to—under conditions which leave them little choice.
Congress and the National Provincial Governments are to blame for this, really suicidal, scandal; resulting from a condition of things so patent that the Italian labourers who come for the harvest return back home again to an existence of probably considerable hardship in Italy, in preference to remaining as “Colonists” under the blue and white banner of Liberty.
The root of all this is that the Argentine cannot bring himself[229] to part with the ownership in land, and the fact of his having done so in the past still rankles109 bitterly in his mind; forgetful of the fact that then that was the only way to interest foreign capital in the development of his country.
The conclusion is that, if he will not and does not give land to colonists, he will find that his prosperity has reached sticking point for want of labour to advance it any further.
That is to say, the agricultural production of Argentina has almost, if not quite, reached the limits of the power of the Republic’s seven million inhabitants.
“The case for the Colonist” has been put with such admirable accuracy by Mr. Herbert Gibson, in a recent pamphlet by him called The Land we Live on, that the present writer has been unable to resist the temptation to cite some passages from it at length. A temptation enhanced by Mr. Gibson’s faculty110 for hitting exactly the right nails on the head coupled with his command of a vividly111 virile112 style.
Mr. Gibson is a member of a family of very large landowners in Argentina; a man of exceptionally high moral and intellectual qualities, and an accepted and respected authority on all matters concerning Argentine rural industry; the best interests of which he has done much to advance, often at his own considerable pecuniary113 cost.
A born Argentine, he can lay bare to the public eye the weaknesses and faults of the agricultural systems of the Republic in a way and to an extent impossible to a foreigner without a strong likelihood of the latter doing much more harm than good to the cause of reform by what would probably be deemed by Argentines a gratuitously114 offensive advocacy.
It should rather befall the man who cries to the shoeblacks and hotel waiters of the city, than to us who are of the land, to plead the cause of the colonist. But let us state his case for him.
An examination of the meteorological conditions, the constitution of the soil, the economy of inland collection, and the[230] average proximity of the radial point of export to the site of production has usually convinced the intelligent traveller, very especially if his intelligence is engaged in ocean or land transport, that the Argentine is the garden of the world.
A closer examination of the abruptness115 of the thermographical curves and their relation to soil foods and the growth and harvest of its products; the difficulty of collecting from units of large area, and at the precise moment of their maximum yield and maturity117, the seeds of annuals; the yet unbridged gulf118 between the field of production and the main channels of its collection;—might well lead the intelligent traveller to a contrary conclusion. When he ceased to generalize he would find the lot of the agriculturist was not as easy as it looked.
Burmeister no doubt overstated the case if he said that wheat would never prosper16 in the Pampa soil. If he said that wheat cultivation would not prosper in the Pampa except under skilled husbandry we could find it easy, after twenty years’ experience, to agree with him.
Meantime the best has been done to make it unsuccessful. The agriculturist, if we are to call him one, is let loose on a five hundred acre pitch of the prairie. In so many cases that one is entitled to generalize, he set out on borrowed land with borrowed implements119 to scratch the soil for three, four or five years and sow wheat on it.
If he is asked whether he sows winter or spring wheat he does not know. If he is asked how many tons of straw he harvests, he neither knows nor cares. If he is asked what calcium120 carbonate and nitrate are, he thinks they are sheep dips, but is not quite sure. If he is questioned on rotation121, he waves his hand to the rolling Russian thistle that gathers like a snowdrift against every obstacle.
His house is, at best, an enlarged sardine122 tin. He has neither barn, byre nor pigsty123. He has no enclosures for cattle, sheep or poultry124. He has no garden. He has not a single tree to shelter him from the sun. With land suited for every form of live stock and field farming he is enslaved to the deadly monotony of wheat growing.
There may be countries with a soil and climate such that white straw crops can be grown for a large number of years in succession without exhausting the land or setting up soil sickness. We know it is done at experimental farms such as Rothamsted. But we know too that the efficiency of soil culture in pursuit of[231] these experiments is beyond the practical ability of the colonist; nor is the economy of the farm an item that is taken into consideration. We know, because we have witnessed it, that in this country after the colonist’s term of four or five years, during which he has collected an average crop of eight bushels per acre, is ended, what remains is a five hundred acre field of weeds.
We can grow weeds. Whatever other merits may be denied to us we have achieved the production of a garden of weeds without equal in the world. Some of them are good plants for animal food, but out of place, for the colonist has not the means to make use of them for that purpose. Others are weeds of the most useless and noxious125 description. If it be true that the scabby Argentine sheep has been a source of wealth to European chemical manufacturers, the day must surely come when still greater fortunes will be made out of weed-spraying nostrums126.
Until this agricultural arab whom we call a colonist is replaced by an occupant with permanent or sufficiently127 long fixity of tenure128; until he has adequate barns, byres, sties, water sweet and cheap, a garden and a homestead; and until he is possessed of cattle, sheep, swine and poultry he will remain as economically lean and weak as the muzzled129 ox. We have talked much of rural banks to enable him to borrow more money; but we have not begun to put into practice the rural economy that will be followed by the rural bank as sure as summer follows spring. When the agriculturist profits, instead of loses, on the year’s overturn, he will build up the bank on his own thrift130.
Within the economy of soil cultivation there is room for two alternatives only. Either the landowner must himself farm his land, or he must lease it with sufficient fixity of tenure and farming equipment to secure to his tenant131 the prospect6 of being able to pay a fair rent.
Agriculture in this country has very largely failed through an attempt to drive a middle course between these two alternatives. The landowner, usually one possessing a large area and hitherto a pastoralist, has seen, or has thought he saw, a larger profit to be earned by turning his soil to agriculture. Instead of putting it to the test by turning agriculturist, he has paid his intelligence the sorry compliment of believing that an illiterate132 Italian, spewed up on our shores may be a year since, could earn this large profit if he were let loose upon the prairie without[232] further capital or assistance than the right to plough the soil, in exchange for a share of the harvest, to be delivered threshed and bagged to his landlord.
The benefits the landlord has derived from this, in a great majority of cases, have been to collect a smaller rent than he could have earned if he had depastured or farmed the land himself; and to receive back at the end of three or four years his pasture land converted into a garden of weeds. The process is termed “improving the land by the plough.” Not long since properties in the market were advertised as especially attractive if they were “all under agriculture.”
Having sowed the wind the landlord is reaping the whirlwind. He has not only failed to profit by agriculture, but he has pledged the land and squandered133 the proceeds. The matter is not that such silly methods of rack-renting, bonanza134 farming, land gutting135 and money lending have wrought136 their own confusion. It is the loss to the industrial community, to the rural population, and to the national thrift that lays bare the defects of the system. These are the fruits. We have to look into the ordering of our agricultural industry, not as determined137 by a “good year” or “bad year,” a “dry” or “wet” year, but by such a readjustment of our rural economy that the soil shall be no longer cultivated at a loss. It is necessary to unmuzzle the ox. Without the aid of domestic live stock the colonist can neither profit from the by-products and fallow of the land, nor can he restore to the soil the factors necessary to yield crops that are of themselves profitable.
Neither have we been careful to conserve138 and stimulate the settlement of a truly agricultural population on the land. We have exported the cult1 of sterility139 from the old world to the new. We have measured in this new world a field of production, not for the labourers, but for their European mandatories140. It was said in the days of the Spanish dominion141 that America was the “factoria” of the mother country. She has seemingly not yet ceased to be regarded as a “factoria.”
We take pride that we export so much and need so little. We call it a favourable “balance of trade.” We spread abroad pamphlets and graphic116 charts and dreary142 columns of ciphers143 to show how successfully we have gutted144 the land we live on to fill alien mouths. We display pictures of train loads of labour-saving machinery145, glorying in the fact that one man aided by Pittsburg steel and Cardiff coal can fend146 off twenty families[233] from a thousand acres, and garner147 the yield for the contentment of fat-handed brokers148 eating lobsters149 in a distant city.
Had the matter been understood rightly by the “estanciero” of a generation or two ago, nay150, even by this present generation, he would have put a premium151 on fecundity152. His business was to encourage population; but while he drowsed in siesta153 hour over the newspaper proclaiming the arrival of alien immigration and smiling unctuously154 at the intelligence, he condemned155 his own men to celibacy156, unwilling157 to spend the price of five bullocks on a mud hut to cradle the generation on his own land of a race of lusty yeomen. He took pride in the number of calves158 and lambs born on his estate. It would have beseemed him better to take pride in the number of babies born there.
Such a consummation would be vastly upsetting to Malthusian economists159 who view with jealousy160 the peopling of new fields of production. They would have us believe that it is only here by the overflowing161 of the Nile, and there by the discovery of the New World, that the human race has been saved from famine. If we can no longer send 350,000 tons of meat and five million tons of cereals to the Old World our usefulness has passed away and our mission ended.
Fiddlesticks! Had the Pampas of South America, the pasture lands of Australia, and the wheat fields of Canada remained virgin there would have been ere now thousands of acres in Great Britain under glass and harnessing the solar spectrum163 and the electric currents of air to manufacture food for the people. Feminists164, instead of rending165 other people’s garments to bewail the departure of their mankind, would be conjuring166 out of four-inch potsherds fruit rich and rare for the household. If among the social economists of the present generation there is a disposition167 to revert168 to the Malthusian creed169; in this spacious170 country, and as far as the vegetative population is concerned, there is no need to raise the voice of alarm. National progress and thrift will be soonest achieved by the increase of the national population; and, without closing the doors to useful alien immigration, the welfare of the community should be dependent rather upon the increase of the family than upon the overflow162 population from other lands. … Under our present system of agriculture the domestic requirements of the country are sacrificed to foreign demand. We measure our progress by our export trade of raw produce. When we speak of agriculture what[234] we really mean is the production of maize, wheat and linseed for shipment abroad.
It is to this end that so much has been heard of warrants, elevators and other devices to enable the farmer to dispose of his crop. They are in some degree devices for his own security; but they are in a much greater degree devices to secure for the export of cereals a more regular flow from the sources that supply it. The time is no doubt distant when this country shall have a population sufficient to consume the raw produce of its soil; but by turning our eyes constantly to its export trade as the sole source of its production we have not only limited the lines of our agricultural production, but we have neglected complementary lines that would have increased that export trade by maintaining soil values.
The cereal that gives the best return from a large area of our Pampa soil and climate is barley171. Being shallow-rooted our indifferent tilth suffices for its seed bed; and being short lived it can be sown late and harvested early, reducing the risks from frost and drought. The “chacarero” who produces 8 fanegas of wheat could produce on averages from the same soil and with no better husbandry 18 fanegas of barley per hectare. In food equivalents that is equal to 280 kilogrammes of pork.
The “chacarero” does not grow barley for the same reason that he neglects or ignores almost every branch of agriculture except wheat, maize and linseed. For the same reason that he neglects rotation, fallow and weeds; vegetables and small fruits; live-stock breeding and feeding; poultry, dairy, and bee-hiving, tree planting; and the greatest of all cultures—home culture. He has no fixity of tenure. There is no other reason.
It is said of the Argentine “chacarero” that he is ignorant and incapable172 of good husbandry. When he first began, of course, he was ignorant. The gold medallist from an Agricultural College is ignorant when he begins to practise farming. Though the farmer’s craft engages the whole cyclop?dia of science, and there is no limit to the knowledge it demands, its practice is essentially173 one of observation and local experience. To those the “chacarero” comes as well equipped as another. His ignorance is but the reflection of his environment.
It is also said of him that he is greedy, and undertakes a larger area than he can cultivate. Again, his greed is but the reflection of the landowner’s. He is called to the land on terms that exclude all fixity of tenure, maintenance of soil values, small[235] farming, rotation or live-stock values; terms that merely bind174 him to plough as best he can a given area, to seed it in cereals that will enable his landlord to collect without inconvenience his rent in kind, delivered “dry, sound and bagged” at the foot of the threshing mill; to continue this process for three or more years; and at the end of his term to go to the devil if his unsuccess has not already landed him in that quarter.
In a scheme of agriculture that was to take no heed175 of the permanent thrift of the land and the man who tilled it we have failed; as we deserved to fail, most miserably176. We have built upon this most uncertain apex177 as a base, an inverted178 pyramid by which ocean and land carriers, merchants, brokers, speculators, and every branch of parasite179 commerce were to wax lustily. We may devise as we will rural credits, schools of agriculture, prophets of agrarian180 science, bellowing181 from the tail-end of peripatetic182 railway coaches, grants of seed, warrants, elevators, labour-saving machinery, and every other panacea183 to nurse the sick field labourer. Until we give him fixity of tenure he will continue to be a sick man. There has been no other solution to agricultural problems of the past. There can be no other solution. Our present rural population, concentrated on less than the present area they are engaged in cultivating, with continuity of usufruct or compensation for improvements secured to them, would produce a larger cereal harvest than they now do, and add to the wealth of our animal produce, and still more to the accumulation of our national thrift.
In Uruguay progress is still possible to the existing population; since the consequences of the civil disturbances184 which until recently paralysed the production of this country, by the constant commandeering of men, horses and supplies by one or other of the combatant parties, have not yet been overcome by the existing settlers who, therefore, still have work ready to their hands. Nevertheless, for Uruguay also it is a case of the more the merrier; more available labour, more rapidly increased agricultural output. Once means are found for an appreciable185 and constant increase of the population of these countries, immediate results of such increase may be expected not only from their production of Cereals, Live Stock and the “Secondary” products already enumerated,[236] but also from coffee, chicory, tea, arrowroot, sugar-beet, sweet sorghum186, hops187, cinnamon, vanilla188 and very many others, for the cultivation of all of which favourable conditions are to be found in one or other of the various climates found between the many degrees of latitude189 traversed by the length of Argentina and the various altitudes between the Argentine Andine frontier line and the sea.
At the same time much could be done for their own comfort and prosperity by farmers, in the ample time which their chief occupations necessarily leave them, by the cultivation of some of these secondary products for their and their neighbours’ use. At present their almost unaccountable neglect to do so justifies190 an obiter dictum of the great Argentine statistician, Dr. Francisco Latzina, in a Monograph191 by him attached to the last Argentine agricultural Census192.
“It seems to me,” Dr. Latzina says, “that the Ministry of Agriculture ought to take a decided193 initiative in encouraging horticulture which, as we see, does not supply the National demand. To add to the climax194, even eggs are imported in this year of grace. If this goes on, the day will come, perhaps, when bread and milk shall be imported in order to be able to export all the wheat, flour and butter produced in the country.” (By “horticulture” Dr. Latzina means, in this connection, the produce of the Kitchen garden.)
It is a fact that, as he says elsewhere in the same Monograph, garlic and onions, peas and beans figure among the imports of a country possessing millions of acres of fertile land! While the farmer frequently buys his potatoes at the Store. This neglect on his part of everything which does not savour of export is one of the factors of dear living in Argentina. Uruguay is on a somewhat different footing in this regard, her rural population having, as has already been indicated, still about as much as it can do in making good the ravages195 of past Revolutions.
Still Uruguay sends vegetables to Buenos Aires, and[237] Uruguayan housewives complain of the high prices of Kitchen stuff which, consequently, now rule in the Montevidean markets.
A very large proportion indeed of the whole of the Republic of Uruguay may be considered as cultivable. In Argentina the question of how much of the whole area of that country may be so considered is yet without exact solution.
In this regard therefore it may be well again to quote Dr. Latzina, who says:—[38]
It is difficult to determine even approximately the cultivable area of Argentina, because hitherto, and yet for some time to come, the extent covered by mountains, deserts, salt marshes196, sand-hills, swamps, moors197 and lagoons198, and the Patagonian table-lands, which are almost entirely uncultivable—not so much so on account of the poor soil, but on account of the want of water and the boisterous and continuous winds which blow incessantly199 day and night in those parts. A calculation such as I wish to make can only be roughly made, and I may say that I doubt if the cultivatable area of Argentina be greater than half its total area—in round numbers, 150,000,000 hectares.
Dr. Latzina then suggests the reservation of two-thirds of that area for stock-breeding, leaving only 50,000,000 hectares for pure agriculture.
However, hardly one-half of this last-mentioned area is as yet under cultivation; leaving plenty of room for the present for the extension of agriculture.
This fact of very large areas within the Territory of the Argentine Republic being, chiefly for climatic reasons (e.g. the more southern and the mountainous parts of Patagonia), unfit for either cultivation or pasturage, except in the latter regard for goats and perhaps the very roughest kinds of sheep, should not be lost sight of when comparing Argentina with Uruguayan statistics. One eminent23 Uruguayan Agricultural[238] Authority, for instance, has triumphantly200 referred (in, it must be considered, a more patriotic201 than strictly202 scientific spirit) to the fact, as stated by him, that the value of the Exports of Uruguay, per square mile of that Republic’s territory, are double those, similarly reckoned, of Argentina. Even accepting his figures as correct, which Argentine statisticians do not, the deduction203 he obviously suggests is certainly based on fallacious reasoning; indeed, the very comparison itself is misleading.
Uruguay is a small, compact country not two-thirds the size of the Province of Buenos Aires, containing practically no exclusively mountainous or arid204 or otherwise desert large areas and none of the obstacles, of distance, or other kinds, encountered by transport in Argentina.
Truly some statistics suggest that their compilers believe that “Figures can be made to prove anything.”
In connection with Agriculture, locusts205 still unfortunately succeed in not letting themselves be forgotten. From time to time vast swarms206 of these rapacious208 insects appear, covering and darkening the sky for leagues. They come from their breeding centres, undoubtedly somewhere in the huge virgin tracts in the western tropical regions of Brazil. Many well-meaning persons have counselled measures for their extermination209 there. A counsel of perfection, alas210! Those who have preached have never been even on the frontiers of the thousands of square leagues of tropical forest and undergrowth which yet have scarcely ever heard the voice of man. To dream of exterminating211 locusts there is as if one proposed to empty a running stream with a bucket. An impossibility.
All that can be done is to attack and destroy the swarms when they have arrived. For this purpose special and, it should at once be said, very successful organization have been brought into existence by the Argentine National Government with the loyal concurrence212 and aid of the Provincial Governments and by the Uruguayan Government.
[239]
At first the Defensa Agricola, as this organization is called, encountered a good deal of passive resistance from rural landowners who, doubting its efficacy and seeing in it or affecting to see in it, rather a means of affording remunerative jobs for Government hangers-on, declared that its officials who pervaded213 the country requisitioning labour and supplies were a worse nuisance than the locusts themselves.
The Defensa Agricola continued its work, however, unheeding of such protests; and now, for some time past, may be said to have fully justified214 its existence and its methods by results in both countries.
It has its centres of observation, like any other force prepared to repel215 invasion, and, on the coming of a swarm207 being signalled, every human being in its course is called upon to aid in the defence.
The plan of this defence consists, briefly216, in driving and sweeping217 the insects into trenches218 backed with long lines of sheets of corrugated219 iron, placed together end to end. Once gathered into these trenches the locusts are burned; and by the untiring continuance of this process they are gradually destroyed before much damage (very small indeed compared with the ravages of pre-Defensa Agricola days) has been done.
The sweeping-up process can be usefully employed for the extermination of settled swarms otherwise its members will quickly proceed to deposit eggs which later would hatch into young “hoppers” born with infinitely220 more voracious221 appetites than even their parents had.[39]
Locusts, as has been seen, come from the North and in the normal course of their nature would disappear again in that direction, leaving bare fields and their hungry young behind them in memory of their visit. Still in recent years, before[240] the full development of the Defensa Agricola, it appeared that locusts had actually become acclimatized in some regions of both Republics, notably222 in the Southern part of the Province of Buenos Aires and in the Territory of the Rio Negro, and therefore did not return North but managed to survive frost.
This last menace may now, however, be considered as past.
The Defensa Agricola does not only devote its attention to locusts. It possesses a highly trained scientific staff which combats the invasions of all the other insect pests which from time to time threaten the crops, vines or fruit and other trees and useful vegetation. It issues clear instructions as to the treatment to be applied in each case and punishes noncompliance with its orders by fines which it is empowered to inflict223.
Agriculture has much for which to thank this Institution in respect of protection against pests; the danger from which was increasing with the importation of vines and fruit trees from other countries.
The Argentine organization is under the direct control of the Ministry of Agriculture[40]; an indefatigable224 Government Department the immensely wide sphere of whose work is ever increasing; Division being added to Division as need arises from the ever-increasing number of the branches of National Industry, whether agricultural or not. For instance, it is only quite lately that anything like complete official statistics have been obtainable in relation to internal manufactures. The country regarded itself, as it was regarded abroad, as purely agricultural in the broad sense including Live Stock production. Now these statistics are regularly issued by the “Division of Commerce and Industry” so admirably directed and watched over by Se?or Ricardo Pillado; a veteran the list of whose valuable economic services to the State dates from the financial[241] renaissance225 which followed the disastrous year 1891; in which renaissance he played a very leading part.
Se?or Pillado was largely instrumental in the devising and carrying into execution of the drastic financial remedies rendered necessary by the culminating abuses of the Juarez Celman regime; and it is to his practical and patriotic genius that the Argentine statistical226 diagrams and many other statistics of that country reproduced in this book owe their existence and annual reappearances in the simple and striking forms which is their very salient feature.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARGENTINE AGRICULTURE, 1896-1913
CULTIVATED AREAS IN HECTARES[41]
Years. Wheat. Linseed. Maize. Lucerne. Other
cultivations. Total.
1896 2,500,000 360,000 1,400,000 800,000 510,000 5,570,000
1897 2,600,000 350,000 1,000,000 900,000 522,000 5,372,000
1898 3,200,000 332,788 850,000 1,067,983 533,000 5,983,771
1899 3,250,000 355,329 1,009,000 1,268,088 545,000 6,427,417
1900 3,379,749 607,352 1,255,346 1,511,601 557,000 7,311,048
1901 3,296,066 782,880 1,405,796 1,631,733 567,000 7,638,475
1902 3,695,343 1,307,196 1,801,644 1,730,163 580,270 9,114,616
1903 4,320,000 1,487,000 2,100,000 2,172,511 606,000 10,685,511
1904 4,903,124 1,082,890 2,287,040 2,503,384 648,000 11,424,438
1905 5,675,293 1,022,782 2,717,300 2,983,643 682,443 13,081,461
1906 5,692,268 1,020,715 2,851,300 3,537,211 796,099 13,897,593
1907 5,759,987 1,391,467 2,719,260 3,612,000 1,129,078 14,612,792
1908 6,063,100 1,534,300 2,973,900 3,687,200 1,572,063 15,830,563
1909 5,836,500 1,455,600 3,005,000 4,706,530 3,772,042 18,775,672
1910 6,253,180 1,503,820 3,215,350 5,400,580 3,994,152 20,367,082
1911 5,897,000 1,630,000 3,422,000 5,630,100 4,304,589 21,883,689
1912 6,918,450 1,733,330 3,830,000 5,955,000 4,550,946 22,987,726
1913 6,573,540 1,779,350 4,152,000 6,690,100 4,896,736 24,091,726
[242]
[243]
EXPORTS OF PRINCIPAL ARGENTINE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, 1875-1913
Years.
$ gold. Oats.
$ gold. Linseed.
$ gold. Maize.
$ gold. Hay.
$ gold. Wheat.
$ gold. Wheat Flour.
$ gold. Bran.
$ gold. Quebracho. Totals.
$ gold.
Extract.
$ gold. Logs.
$ gold.
1875 — — 3,714 107,517 — 1,188 2,138 — — 114,557
1876 — — 136,986 105,496 997 33,069 4,928 — — 281,476
1877 — — 166,889 219,570 7,335 20,419 — — — 414,213
1878 — 7,107 290,088 130,648 105,350 300,282 63,802 — — 897,277
1879 — 20,338 501,857 105,625 1,328,692 160,304 58,070 — — 2,174,886
1880 — 95,485 288,275 184,695 46,747 100,695 44,353 — 10,121 770,371
1881 — 604,387 541,058 37,283 11,111 105,832 37,439 — 11,016 1,348,126
1882 — 1,650,043 2,141,135 132,683 66,864 39,188 28,320 — — 4,058,233
1883 — 1,153,087 372,804 137,531 2,430,184 343,099 43,647 — — 4,480,352
1884 — 1,699,582 2,274,201 142,153 4,339,970 261,406 58,948 — — 8,776,260
1885 — 3,471,305 3,957,191 165,587 3,139,736 521,295 87,482 — — 11,342,596
1886 — 1,825,199 4,653,421 149,414 1,510,378 362,807 40,105 — — 8,541,324
1887 — 4,066,409 7,236,886 148,506 9,514,635 378,076 62,921 — 5,095 21,412,528
1888 — 2,131,813 5,444,464 238,308 8,248,614 639,244 33,132 — 172,700 16,908,275
1889 — 1,607,162 12,977,721 572,153 1,596,446 510,853 69,082 — 485,357 17,818,774
1890 — 1,228,825 14,145,639 198,866 9,836,824 600,894 28,337 — 826,508 26,865,893
1891 — 732,798 1,384,088 420,058 23,733,312 361,230 110,929 — 1,245,628 27,988,043
1892 — 2,546,220 8,561,231 374,428 14,696,089 1,024,041 290,849 — 617,811 28,110,669
1893 19,504 2,887,975 1,578,545 638,640 23,459,926 1,318,590 243,403 — 1,265,942 31,412,525
1894 29,489 3,583,459 1,046,007 456,386 27,118,142 1,019,931 211,551 — 962,687 34,427,652
1895 228,875 8,287,112 10,193,338 432,657 19,471,652 1,882,366 249,830 40,167 1,778,814 42,564,811
1896 38,389 6,856,106 15,994,556 899,781 12,830,027 1,949,556 708,738 68,419 832,718 40,178,290
1897 18,110 4,996,288 5,478,718 933,716 3,470,351 2,411,719 747,551 120,474 1,356,744 19,533,671
1898 20,929 5,420,031 9,274,197 1,246,849 22,368,900 1,592,495 767,972 119,224 1,882,604 42,693,201
1899 88,493 7,402,488 13,042,983 1,158,825 38,078,343 1,938,281 922,916 317,156 1,593,761 64,543,246
1900 127,249 10,674,011 11,933,747 1,282,620 48,627,653 1,718,085 1,163,120 595,701 2,398,362 78,520,548
1901 47,139 16,513,263 18,887,397 961,576 26,240,733 2,711,298 1,454,428 431,004 1,989,195 69,236,033
1902 503,465 17,840,952 22,994,060 1,004,133 18,584,894 1,603,568 1,726,562 909,904 2,477,233 67,644,771
1903 514,267 21,239,894 33,147,249 1,033,244 41,323,099 3,128,525 1,894,693 1,204,049 2,002,010 105,487,030
1904 541,973 28,359,923 44,391,196 616,287 66,947,891 4,757,248 2,409,250 2,011,130 2,527,227 152,562,125
1905 334,349 26,233,851 46,536,402 801,219 85,883,141 5,373,699 3,051,155 2,427,772 4,275,164 174,916,752
1906 1,117,184 25,915,861 53,365,687 1,169,089 66,561,181 4,477,964 3,249,888 2,162,949 3,425,101 161,444,904
1907 3,593,397 36,081,221 29,653,979 769,505 82,727,747 4,696,934 4,552,332 1,811,878 3,132,493 167,019,486
1908 9,697,716 49,004,704 41,556,865 599,937 128,842,610 5,133,335 4,698,879 2,994,922 2,962,184 245,491,152
1909 10,115,161 43,713,358 58,374,430 580,853 106,038,940 5,594,852 4,483,317 4,226,333 4,380,033 237,507,277
1910 8,142,575 44,604,395 60,260,804 478,228 72,202,260 4,947,137 4,521,783 4,429,357 5,604,430 205,190,969
1911 11,666,291 33,579,990 2,766,597 679,425 80,675,066 4,739,421 4,612,292 4,980,027 6,897,435 150,596,544
1912 21,858,517 34,213,565 108,908,193 307,112 97,835,174 6,926,280 5,940,579 4,836,860 3,568,557 284,394,837
1913 20,447,278 49,910,201 112,292,394 312,590 102,631,143 7,224,029 4,740,184 4,974,686 4,988,349 307,520,854
Totals 89,150,350 500,158,408 766,754,992 19,933,193 1,252,532,157 80,909,235 53,414,905 38,662,012 63,675,279 2,865,190,531
￡ 17,688,561 99,237,780 152,133,927 3,955,000 248,518,285 16,053,419 10,598,195 7,671,034 12,633,983 568,490,184
[244]
[245]
DEVELOPMENT OF ARGENTINE AGRICULTURE
[246]
The total value of the Agricultural Exports during 1914 was some $200,000,000 (gold), but recovery was made in 1915 to some $320,000,000 (gold) during the latter year.
The Argentine harvests of 1915-16 are estimated in round figures at:
Wheat 5,500,000 tons
Linseed 1,300,000 ”
Oats 1,360,000 ”
The Maize crop is as yet unascertained at the time of writing.
The corresponding Uruguayan figures are as yet unobtainable. The Statistical Department of this Republic was reorganized in 1912, but, no doubt, has had to cope with enormous arrears227. Still it is regrettable that authoritative228 statistics regarding this country are difficult, when not impossible, to obtain.
In 1913 Uruguay exported agricultural products of the value of $(Uruguayan) 1,857,000. 400,000 hectares in Uruguay were under wheat, a slightly less area under maize; the cultivation of oats was increasing rapidly, and that of barley slowly.
As has already been mentioned, the present (1915-16) harvests are reported as generally splendid in both countries though labour presents a serious problem, as do freights and scarcity of ships for export. Such complications have been prevalent and are likely to prevail throughout the war.
THE SOIL
Naturally, the soil of such a vast area as that covered by the two Republics of Argentina and Uruguay is varied229 to an extent with which a book like the present cannot attempt to deal adequately. The greatest feature is, however, the celebrated230 Pampean formation which obtains over the whole of the Province of Buenos Aires, the greater parts of the Provinces of Santa Fé, Córdoba, San Luis and Mendoza, the National Territory of the Pampa Central, the Republic of[247] Uruguay, and extends southwards beyond the Argentine Rio Negro. In many places on this formation there are also later alluvial231 deposits.
The lightest soils, those with the smallest proportion of clay and consequently the loosest, are found in the West, near the Andes.
Starting from the most sandy western region, the soil grows more and more compact towards the east, along the River Paraná, the South of the Province of Santa Fé and most of the Republic of Uruguay, the Northern part of the Province of Buenos Aires (where rather heavy soils predominate); while in the South and South-West, that is to say the southern portion of the Province of Córdoba, the National Territory of the Pampa Central and the central and southern part of the Province of Buenos Aires, the soil is of lighter232, though firmer consistency233, than that of the western part.
The generally salient qualities of the Pampean soil are richness in humus, deficiency in lime and good proportions of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. A characteristic feature of the subsoil is stratified layers of more or less calcareous concretions known as TOSCA (tufa or tophos stone). This layer is sometimes deep down; but in the southern region of the Province of Buenos Aires, beginning at Tandíl and Azul, it reaches nearly to the surface, so as to appear immediately under the soil, thus forming a waterproof234 subsoil impenetrable by roots.
The present writer has seen wheat growing on less than an inch of soil above the tosca; the roots spreading out at right angles to the stalks.
These layers of tosca or, in other parts, clay, are of great importance for holding water; seldom at any great distance from the surface.
On low and level plains when the soil is light or loose, chains of sand-hills are formed by the prevailing235 winds. Some of these are kept stationary236 by quick-growing vegetation,[248] while others are constantly shifting. The shifting sandhill is, however, fast disappearing in consequence of the advances of pastoral industry; for, and by, which they are becoming fixed237 by herbaceous growth.
The tosca and clay subsoils have in many parts occasioned the formation of lagoons and swamps; the waters of which are, usually, at least brackish238 and often salt. A white or grey efflorescence seen in these swamps is locally called saltpetre, but in fact it only contains slight traces of nitre.
Towards the extreme North of the Province of Entre Rios and the Republic of Uruguay red soil heralds239 one’s approach to subtropical or tropical vegetation.
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astounding
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cultivation
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juxtaposition
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adverse
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prospect
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prospects
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immediate
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deadlock
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serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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14
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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15
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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16
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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17
prodigality
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| n.浪费，挥霍 | |
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18
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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19
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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20
complexity
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| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
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21
maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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22
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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23
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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24
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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25
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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26
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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27
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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28
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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29
endorsement
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| n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注 | |
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30
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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31
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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32
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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33
bounty
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| n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与 | |
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34
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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35
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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36
sparsely
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| adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地 | |
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37
procurable
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| adj.可得到的，得手的 | |
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38
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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39
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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40
mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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41
colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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42
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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43
remunerative
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| adj.有报酬的 | |
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44
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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45
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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46
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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47
stimulate
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| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
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48
explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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49
shrub
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| n.灌木，灌木丛 | |
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50
absurdity
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|
| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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51
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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52
gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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53
infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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54
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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55
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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56
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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57
palatable
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| adj.可口的，美味的；惬意的 | |
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58
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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59
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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60
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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61
encroachment
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| n.侵入，蚕食 | |
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62
vegetarianism
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| n.素食，素食主义 | |
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63
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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64
speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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65
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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66
retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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67
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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68
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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69
petroleum
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| n.原油，石油 | |
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70
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
preponderating
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| v.超过，胜过( preponderate的现在分词 ) | |
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72
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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73
quotations
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|
| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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74
exhausted
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|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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75
annually
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|
| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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76
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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77
outlay
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| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
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78
instructors
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| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
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79
proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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80
expenditure
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|
| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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81
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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82
denizen
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| n.居民，外籍居民 | |
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83
scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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84
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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85
conceal
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|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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86
affected
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|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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87
boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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88
dilatoriness
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| n.迟缓，拖延 | |
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89
inadequacy
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| n.无法胜任，信心不足 | |
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90
provincial
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|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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91
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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92
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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93
entirely
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|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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94
unprecedentedly
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|
| adv.空前地 | |
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95
advantageous
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|
| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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96
remains
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|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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97
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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98
destined
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|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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99
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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100
perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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101
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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102
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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103
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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104
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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105
colonization
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| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
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106
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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107
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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108
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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109
rankles
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| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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110
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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111
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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112
virile
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| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
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113
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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114
gratuitously
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| 平白 | |
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115
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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116
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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117
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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118
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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119
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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120
calcium
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| n.钙(化学符号Ca) | |
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121
rotation
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| n.旋转；循环，轮流 | |
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122
sardine
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| n.[C]沙丁鱼 | |
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123
pigsty
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| n.猪圈，脏房间 | |
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124
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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125
noxious
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| adj.有害的，有毒的；使道德败坏的，讨厌的 | |
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126
nostrums
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| n.骗人的疗法，有专利权的药品( nostrum的名词复数 )；妙策 | |
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127
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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128
tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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129
muzzled
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的过去式和过去分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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130
thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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131
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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132
illiterate
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|
| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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133
squandered
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| v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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134
bonanza
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| n.富矿带，幸运，带来好运的事 | |
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135
gutting
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| n.去内脏v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的现在分词 )；取出…的内脏 | |
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136
wrought
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|
| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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137
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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138
conserve
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| vt.保存，保护，节约，节省，守恒，不灭 | |
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139
sterility
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| n.不生育，不结果，贫瘠，消毒，无菌 | |
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140
mandatories
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| n.受托管理国( mandatory的名词复数 ) | |
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141
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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142
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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143
ciphers
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| n.密码( cipher的名词复数 )；零；不重要的人；无价值的东西 | |
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144
gutted
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|
| adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏 | |
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145
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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146
fend
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| v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开 | |
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147
garner
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| v.收藏；取得 | |
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148
brokers
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| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
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149
lobsters
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| 龙虾( lobster的名词复数 )； 龙虾肉 | |
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150
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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151
premium
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| n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的 | |
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152
fecundity
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| n.生产力；丰富 | |
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153
siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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154
unctuously
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| adv.油腻地，油腔滑调地；假惺惺 | |
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155
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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156
celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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157
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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158
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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159
economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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160
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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161
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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162
overflow
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| v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出 | |
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163
spectrum
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| n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列 | |
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164
feminists
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| n.男女平等主义者，女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 ) | |
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165
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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166
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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167
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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168
revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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169
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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170
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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171
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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172
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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173
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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174
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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175
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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176
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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177
apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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178
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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179
parasite
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| n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客 | |
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180
agrarian
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| adj.土地的，农村的，农业的 | |
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181
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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182
peripatetic
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| adj.漫游的，逍遥派的，巡回的 | |
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183
panacea
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| n.万灵药；治百病的灵药 | |
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184
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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185
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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186
sorghum
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| n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西 | |
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187
hops
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| 跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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188
vanilla
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| n.香子兰，香草 | |
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189
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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190
justifies
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| 证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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191
monograph
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| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
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192
census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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193
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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194
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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195
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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196
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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197
moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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198
lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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199
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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200
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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201
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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202
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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203
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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204
arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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205
locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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206
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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207
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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208
rapacious
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| adj.贪婪的，强夺的 | |
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209
extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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210
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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211
exterminating
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的现在分词 ) | |
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212
concurrence
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| n.同意；并发 | |
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213
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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214
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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215
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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216
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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217
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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218
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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219
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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220
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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221
voracious
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| adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的 | |
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222
notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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223
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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224
indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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225
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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226
statistical
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| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
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227
arrears
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| n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作 | |
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228
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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229
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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230
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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231
alluvial
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| adj.冲积的；淤积的 | |
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232
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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233
consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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234
waterproof
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| n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水 | |
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235
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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236
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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237
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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238
brackish
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| adj.混有盐的；咸的 | |
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239
heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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