Ko. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 289 



a fraction of the great possible wheat zone of the continent, is ex- 

 porting millions of bushels of high grade wheat every year, besides 

 producing its own bread. 



About the time the possibilities of profitable wheat growing were 

 being proved, an American, a former Kentuckian, having a ranch 

 not far from the Swiss colonists referred to above, planted several 

 acres to corn, using seed from his native State. He harvested a 

 crop that averaged a little more than sixty bushels an acre, indis- 

 putable evidence that corn can be grown with profit if the right 

 man is at the plow. The news of tliis crop was carried on the wings 

 of the wind to all sections of the Pampas, and even beyond, and 

 within a few yeai's scores of other husbandmen demonstrated the 

 general adaptability of Pampas soil and climate to the production 

 of corn of suitable varieties. As a result, millions of bushels of 

 the king of cereals are yearly sent abroad, hardly more than that 

 required for seed being consumed internally. 



Another American, a Californian, who went prospecting among 

 the grazing lands of the Pampas, saw in the suburbs of every 

 town and village small plots of the finest alfalfa, but not an acre 

 (•n any of the ranches. On inquiring why alfalfa was grown only 

 in gardens he was told that it would not thrive on the ranch. Hav- 

 ing raised alfalfa all his life he had his opinion of this explanation. 

 Certain, now, of the exceptional adaptability of the Pampas for 

 stock raising, he continued his search, found a frontier property 

 of many thousand acres to his liking, bought it at a few cents an 

 acre, and made speedy preparations to seed a hundred acres to al- 

 falfa. Neighbors advised liim that his efforts would be fruitless, 

 for had they not heard all their lives that the ranch would not grow 

 this best of forage plants. His experience with alfalfa in his former 

 home led him to persist in his course despite the forebodings of his 

 new friends. His experiment was brilliantly successful, and to-day 

 he has about 70,000 acres in alfalfa. Sloreover, he has yet to turn 

 under the first acre of alfalfa sod. 



This experiment, made some forty years ago, induced others to 

 do likewise, the result being that there are now millions of acres 

 of alfalfa on the Pampas. Naturally, for a number of years there 

 was a good deal of doubt concerning the possibility of growing the 

 crop in other districts, so deep-rooted was the belief that it could 

 not be raised in ordinary soil under ordinary farm conditions. But 

 here and there a man was bold enougli to go counter to the long 

 established notion, the successful efforts of all these experiments 

 making it certain that every part of the Pampas is unusually well 

 adapted to the production of alfalfa. 



Some of the great estates now have over 200,000 acres each in 

 alfalfa, and thousands of smaller ranches each have thousands and 

 tens of thousands of acres. Don't think Smith of Texas, with his 

 little patch of l.-'OO acres or J<mes of California, with 2,500 acres, 

 is the "alfalfa king" of the world, as some of our papers boastingly 

 proclaim. The "king'' is in Argentina, the country which leads 

 the world in tlie acreage and production of alfalfa, for in the most 

 favored sections of Argentina during mid-season a cro]) of alfalfa 

 grows in from twenty-two to twenty-seven days, and nine cuttings 

 are made in the year, giving a yield of cured hay ranging from twelve 

 to nearly tAventy tons an acre. In the greater part of the country 



19—7—1910 



