AGRICULTURE GENERAL 307 



on national resources has pressed for the laying down to pasture of 

 large areas in order to retain a permanent cover of vegetation. The 

 Argentine has had a somewhat different history: grain crops paid 

 for breaking up the country in the initial stages, and after a time 

 much of the cultivated land was laid down to pasture and cattle- 

 raising took the place of wheat-growing. 



Generalizations such as these are perhaps rash because there are 

 so many factors which influence any change in agricultural activity. 

 Moreover, the traditions of the original immigrants in a country 

 doubtless have far-reaching effects: Australia, North America, and 

 South Africa were settled mainly by the Anglo-Saxon races, who 

 have for centuries had the tradition of stock behind them. In the 

 case of the Latin races, whose outlook in farming is largely arable, 

 the tendency is to develop cultivation rather than stock. In the 

 French colonies of north Africa, for example, the type of agricul- 

 ture developed by settlers is entirely arable, and the only stock 

 raised there are those belonging to the indigenous peoples of the 

 country. In South America also, the initial agricultural develop- 

 ments due to Latin immigrants were all in the direction of grow- 

 ing crops and to a considerable extent remain so, for the Argentine 

 is still the world's greatest exporter of maize in spite of the develop- 

 ment of stock referred to above. 



In tropical Africa the early hopes of stock raising gave place to 

 a concentration on agriculture because reservoirs of stock diseases 

 existed everywhere in native cattle and game animals. Even now 

 the relationship of game and stock with regard to disease is ex- 

 tremely obscure, but many of the worst troubles are controllable. 

 High-yielding races of stock, immune from disease, are being bred, 

 and game animals are retreating from settled areas into sanctu- 

 aries. 



It may be concluded from these arguments that, as years proceed 

 and the results of pasture research become generally applicable, 

 many of the settled areas now under crops may be used for mixed 

 farming. Pastoral farming alone is unlikely ever to usurp wide areas 

 in the African highlands, because additional feed will be necessary 

 for parts of the year, and this cannot be provided unless it is grown 

 locally. 



