No 7 DErARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 283 



probably carried by blood-sucking insects. It is doubtful if there 

 are 15,000,000 horses in all. There are probably 5,000,000 or 6,000,- 

 000 mules and asses, the former being generally used instead of 

 horses in all inhabited regions of high temperature. 



Swine have taken to every part of the continent settled by the 

 whites, they thrive nearly everywhere, yet it is likely that there are 

 less than 5,000,000 all told, with little if any annual gain in numbers. 



There are goats up to 2,000,000 or 3,000,000, kept for their tlesh 

 and skins, and there- are 20,000,000 or more head of poultry— turkeys, 

 geese, ducks and fowls. 



The staple grains, vegetables and fruits are unknown as farm 

 crops in most parts of South America. Many different varieties are 

 sparingly grown in small garden plots, partially to meet private 

 needs, but practically the only region in which they have gained an 

 economic place of more than local importance is the Pampas of Ar- 

 gentina and Uruguay. 



The Pampas is the region from which have come the wonderful 

 stories of the meteoric rise of South American agriculture. Here 

 is the territory, which, according to some vision-seeing travelers and 

 writers, will soon force the farmers of other lands into a condition 

 scarcely better than serfdom, for these seers already see the Pampas 

 producing unlimited quantities of meats and grains, butter and 

 cheese, fruits and vegetables, wool and hides, flax and cotton, at 

 i)rices so low that even the poorest of the world may be fed and 

 clothed like princes. Without question the Pampas is the key to 

 the South American agriculture of the present, and it will remain 

 the key for several generations, at least. It has a genial climate; 

 a fairly fertile soil all ready for the plow, although subject to long 

 periods of drought and the devastation of great swarms of grass- 

 hoppers; all sections are within easy access of river and ocean; and 

 life and property are as secure there as in any other part of the 

 continent, indeed, more secure, than in many other districts. 



The other sections of temperate South America are also rich in 

 climate and soil, but they are difficult of access; their sparse pojmla- 

 tion is generally antagonistic to foreigners and uncongenial to 

 people reared under the enlightenment of the United States or 

 Europe; and the life and property of the alien are far from safe, 

 especially outside the policed districts of the larger towns and cities. 

 During the last seventy-five or eighty years small numbers of men 

 from our own country and greater numbers from Europe have gone 

 into the temperate districts to engage in farming, generally in ranch- 

 ing, except that some have ''taken up" grain growing in recent years 

 on the Pampas, with a liberal measure of success, but at the sacrifice 

 of most of the amenities of civilization, living and rearing their 

 children far from the refining influences of people of even moderate 

 culture, and subject to the bestial practices of a degenerate Chris- 

 tianity. 



For instance, in eastern Bolivia there is a family of north Eu- 

 r()])ean stock, stock which in the United States has produced men 

 of the highest standing, living -hardly better than the debased 

 "greasers" of our own Southwest, although "rolling" in wealth. 

 About forty years ago this man and his wife emigrated, taking with 

 them a few hundred dollars, and ascending the mighty La Plata far 

 into the interior of the continent, lured by the glowing prospects of 



