SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 399 



pie of the United States, and I believe that those conditions and cir- 

 cumstances relating to closer relations will be for the mutual benefit 

 of both peoples. 



If they had an organization down there similar to this one, it prob- 

 ablj' would not be called the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association, but 

 it might be called the Alfalfa Belt Meat Producers' Association. They 

 have in Argentina an area of alfalfa equal to two and one-half times 

 the total area of corn in this state, consequently alfalfa is their chief crop. 

 It outranks all other crops in acreage and in value and in Importance 

 to the live stock and agricultural interests of that country. 



In the matter of organization, they have an association down there 

 known as the Rural Society of the Argentine, and that is said to be, 

 and doubtless is, the most effective and powerful organization in the 

 Argentine Republic. The Argentine is said to be first a white man's 

 country, and second a cattle men's country. The cattle men elect the 

 legislators and make the laws, and to a large extent determine the pol- 

 icies of that country; and I think the people in this audience will agree 

 that any country that is governed by cattle men is likely to be a pretty 

 good country and under a pretty good government. The Rural Society 

 has a membership of about 3,000 stock breeders and farmers — mostly 

 the former. It was originated by the stock men, and has in later years 

 been extended to include all people on the farms and interested in an 

 organization of that kind. Those men virtually have charge of the live 

 stock interests of that country. It is a large, influential and powerful 

 organization, and has been of great assistance in promoting the agricul- 

 tural and live stock interests of the Argentine. 



Now, the conditions in Argentina are quite different, from the 

 standpoint of beef production, from those prevailing in this country. 

 Argentina is the one and only country that I know of where corn has 

 but little' value in beef production. They grow corn quite extensively, 

 but they use very little of it in making their beef, and consequently 

 the cattle men are very little concerned about the price of corn. It 

 would be a happy condition, perhaps, for the feeders in this country 

 just now, if they were independent of the price of corn. In the Argen- 

 tine, practically all of their beef business is a grazing business, and not 

 a yard-feeding business. The country was originally an open prairie 

 country, as was our own state years ago, and like much of the western 

 range country is today. At the present time, however, the better part 

 of that country is fenced, and, while it is still a grazing and grass- 

 producing beef business, it is on the basis of a large pasture proposi- 

 tion rather than on the basis of the open range. It is true they have 

 in a good many parts open range that has not yet been fenced up or 

 enclosed, and a good deal of unoccupied land; but the richer and more 

 valuable part of the land is taken up, fenced in large holdings, and 

 stocked with very well-bred and improved stock. 



One of the things that impresses a man from this country in going 

 there is the extent and magnitude of the great, rich, level, productive 

 areas of land in central Argentina. It compares very favorably with 



