838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



call them have an extreme fear of man ; it is dangerous to approach 

 them on foot. They are prone to abandon their calves, and give 

 them insufficient food. On the other hand, the cattle in small herds, 

 or manses, breed much better and more rapidly. In Parana, many 

 estanciers have, besides the droves of hravo cattle, four or five hun- 

 dred head of manse cattle, which are kept to be milked ; the lat- 

 ter live in the same campo, equally free with the others, but nearer 

 the buildings. Nothing can be more surprising than to observe the 

 differences in the aspect and in the productiveness of the two classes, 

 whose conditions differ only in their having a greater or less famili- 

 arity with man. Ultimately, when these regions shall have become 

 more populous and divided into smaller estates, the manse cattle will 

 predominate, and systematic breeding will take the place of the pres- 

 ent free-range practice ; but at present the fact must be recognized 

 that the rearing on a grand scale of the half- wild stock is the only sys- 

 tem that gives returns ; this method is, however, I am assured, com- 

 petent to produce a stock equal to some of the better-managed races 

 of Europe. The natural physical conditions under the operation of 

 which the production of cattle must be maintained and promoted in 

 these regions, are liable to considerable variation, even within the lim- 

 ited territory which I have visited. 



The operation of the differences as a whole is revealed in the 

 variations in the annual sales in the several regions. In Parana the 

 proportion of animals sold is excessively small, being only about one 

 twentieth of the total number of cattle for each year, but it is regu- 

 lar ; while it rises to from one tenth to one eighth in Rio Grande and 

 Montevideo, and to a still higher figure farther south, but is very 

 irregular, falling sometimes below that which rules in Parana. That 

 even the larger proportion of sales is smaller than that which obtains 

 in Europe, is easily explained by reference to the dift'erences in the pre- 

 vailing conditions ; but why such differences should exist between two 

 regions of South America where the same system of raising is prac- 

 ticed, is an interesting subject of inquiry. The animals grow quite 

 slowly in Parana, and are hardly ready to send to market till they are 

 four or six years old, and are well developed and shapely ; in the 

 southern districts they are as a whole smaller, but are more rapidly 

 developed, and are sold when only three or four years, or even less 

 than three years, old. Then, while in Europe, nearly every cow is ex- 

 pected to give a calf each year, in Rio Grande and Montevideo the 

 number of calves is only eighty per cent., in Parana only fifty per 

 cent, that of the cow. In Parana the calves are nearly always born 

 at or near the same time of the year, between September and Novem- 

 ber, while in Rio Grande and Montevideo the time of calving varies 

 with different years, and even in the same year on different estates, 

 and the proportion of calves is likewise irregular. The estancias of 

 Montevideo are liable to visitations by epidemics which often carry off 



