CATTLE-RAISING IN SOUTH AMERICA. 839 



thousands of head of stock ; those of Parana are liable to a single 

 affliction which is troublesome, the grub, from which the more south- 

 ern districts are comparatively free. In Parana, the animal having 

 passed his first year, continues to grow regularly and safely ; in the 

 southern districts he is exposed to many dangerous affections. The 

 Parana animal has symmetrical proportions, a good size, well-developed 

 bones, a thick hide well provided with hair, horns firmly planted and 

 curved ; the color only is variable. The southern stock, although 

 faster growing, are irregular in their proportions, smaller than those 

 of Parana, and do not give as much clear beef. 



These diversities are attributable to differences in the media in 

 which the cattle live. The seasons at Parana are regular. One, from 

 December till the end of March, is marked by heavy rains coinciding 

 with great heat ; the other, including the rest of the months, is without 

 rains or storms, but has abundant dews a season of seven months of 

 drought. The seasons are irregular in the southern regions. The 

 winters are colder than in Parana, and are attended with heavy frosts. 

 Long storms are not infrequent, and are often destructive to stock. 

 The rains are not to be depended upon, but the heaviest of them fall 

 in the winter ; and the dry seasons come at irregular intervals. Calves 

 are regularly born in the same months in Parana, because the animals, 

 after having been exhausted by the long drought, have recovered their 

 strength in the rich pasturage of December and January, and are in 

 the best condition for heat in the following: months. The seasons of 

 calving are irregular in the southern districts because the times when 

 the rains fall and the pastures are good, on which the procreative abil- 

 ity of the animals depends, are irregular. 



These facts are very remarkable, for they show that reproduction 

 is not regulated directly by the climate or the season, but indirectly, 

 through the condition of the pasturage. The further development of 

 the young animal is also affected by the same condition. The Parana 

 calf, born during the dry season, is badly nourished at first, but find- 

 ing the pastures rich just when it has grown large enough to graze, 

 and beginning at the same time to receive an abundance of milk from 

 its mother, it takes on a rapid development, and soon becomes strong 

 enough to endure the coming dry season. Tliis season carries off all 

 the weaker animals, especially those that are calved at a later than the 

 normal time, and has in this manner contributed to the perfection and 

 perpetuation of the characteristics of the breed. 



The case is quite different in the south, where the increase and 

 growth of the animals are as irregular as the seasons ; great losses 

 occur under excej^tional conditions of weather ; and herds are some- 

 times reduced one half in consequence of long droughts. 



The capacity of the stock in Parana to endure the long annual 

 droughts is doubtless increased by certain accessory features in the 

 nature of the soil and in the wooded growth. The soil is clayey, and 



