No. 7. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 2Sl 



Everyone of the graduates has a position now in advance, — a greater 

 demand than can be filled, — and how are we going to take care of the 

 additional agricultural students next year? We must have more 

 buildings and they must come from the Legislature through your sup- 

 port. 



SOUTH AMERICAN AGRICULTUKE 



By E. M. BAXTER, A. M., B. S. A., Mifflinhurg, Pa. 

 Ex-Chief Argentine National Department of Agriculture. Formerly Agricultural Editor Buenos 



Ayres Herald 



You are aware, of course, that the great highland region of South 

 America lies close to the Pacific Ocean. It varies in width from 

 about one hundred to more than six hundred miles, and extends 

 from the far north to the extreme south of the continent. In 

 many places it rises with considerable abruptness from the Pacific 

 to heights varying from a few hundred to several thousand feet, 

 seamed with deep gorges and gullies cut by the torrents which have 

 their origin in the melting snows and glaciers of the Arctic sum- 

 mits of the Andes. 



The highlands of the east, the lesser system of the continent, 

 are roughly triangular in form, the sides of the triangle being 

 nearly equal in length. One side faces the Atlantic for a distance 

 of some two thousand miles, having the angle op])osite over fifteen 

 hundred miles from the coast, near the point where the falls of 

 the Madeira obstruct river navigation into liolivia. The eastern 

 highlands are much lower than the western, have onlv about half 

 their area, and are chiefly within the tropics. 



A large part of the continent is lowland less than a thousand 

 feet above the level of the sea. In some secti(ms the lowland is 

 very fiat, but generally its surface is marked by a great diversity 

 of hill and valley. It extends from about six degrees north of the 

 equator to forty degrees south. Much of the western highland is 

 barren, but the pocket-like expansions of the valleys where irriga- 

 tion may be practiced, and the foothills on the east, the total aggre- 

 gating only a relatively small area, however, are fertile, in places 

 extremely so. 



A narrow belt of desert, alkaline and saline in nature, in places 

 more than three hundred miles wide, lies on the lower slopes of 

 the Andes and the lowlands to their east, extending from within 

 the tropics almost to the Straits of Magellan. Wherever irriga- 

 tion is possible in this barren region bountiful crops may be pro- 

 duced. 



The lowlands and eastern highlands are characterized by great 

 tracts of forests, and vast, treeless, grassy plains. Swamps thick 

 with rank reeds and other coarse water plants are common. In 

 places the forests are open, offering only slight obstacles to horse- 

 back travel, but in many extensive districts the trees, shrubs, and 

 vines are so intergrown that the explorer must cut his way through 



