No, 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 287 



fruits and vegetables common to our latitudes, with few exceptions, 

 became coarse and insipid under most South American conditions 

 of growth. For centuries there have been cattle, sheep, and poultry 

 in great numbers in most parts of the continent, but their flesh 

 had not the tenderness, the flavor nor the nutritive qualities of 

 meats produced under modern conditions in lands long under cul- 

 tivation. 



Early last century an American, one of tlie small number of our 

 compatriots who have found the route to South America, was in- 

 strumental in getting a number of Merino sheep from Spain into 

 the Pampas, in the hopes of securing a better and heavier clip of 

 wool. Although there was improvement in every flock into which 

 this new blood was taken, the financial outcome of the move was not 

 encouraging. Monetary rewards there finally were, but they came 

 not to him who promoted the improvement but to his successors, 

 when, in later years, the foreign demand arose for more and finer 

 wool. To-day there are probably 40,000,000 sheep aff'ected by this 

 and more recent importations of Merino stock, some of them from 

 the United States, and nearly as many more millions improved by 

 other pure stock imported since the early eighties of last century. 

 Some of the best pure bred sheep of the world are now on the ranches 

 of the Pampas, where the prices of superior sires range from $2,000 

 to $5,000, in the current coin of the United States, with chief honors 

 about equally divided between the Kambouillet and Lincoln. The 

 former is demanded on ranches distant from the packing houses 

 where fine wool is the aim, and the latter on properties convenient 

 to railway and steamer, with a desire for large carcasses of mutton. 

 All of Europe's chief breeds of sheep are now being tried out intel- 

 ligently on the Pampas under skilled Old World stockmen, with 

 indications that several besides the Rambouillet and Lincoln will 

 make a worthy place for themselves there. 



Sixty or seventy years ago a Briton who had been some time in 

 Argentina engaged in stock farming had a Shorthorn sire sent out 

 from England, chiefly for the purpose of securing better beef for 

 his own table. In this case, as in that of the Merino sheep, the ex- 

 periment was not satisfactory from an economic standpoint. The 

 progeny of the imported sire were superior to native stock in size 

 and quality of flesh, but there was too little gain in sales to induce 

 further improvement at that time. Later on, however, the monetary 

 importance of high class stock became manifest, leading to an in- 

 sistent demand for pure bred sires at exorbitant prices, the range 

 having run from |5,000 to |17,000, American money. 



The success of the Shorthorn in the clever hands of stockmen 

 of British extraction soon led to the trial of other breeds, with 

 the result that most of those best known in Europe have been im- 

 ported in considerable numbers. Several of these are apparently 

 adapting themselves marvelously well to the peculiar conditions of 

 Pampas ranching, especially since it has been found that the cereals 

 and cultivated clovers and grasses can be luxuriantly grown there. 

 As a result of the activity in the improvement of cattle during the 

 last fifteen or twenty years there are now tens of thousands of pure 

 bred stock, and millions of cross bred in South America, with the 

 outlook bright for the continuation of the movement until every 

 part of the continent has been lifted above the mediocrity of the past. 



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