448 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



Countries. 



Colombia 



Venezuela 



British Guiana 



Brazil 



Argentine Republic. 



Uruguay 



Paraguay 



Chili 



Peru* 



Boliviat 



Ecuador 



1877. 



Kilometers. 



103 

 147 



2,600 



•2,24C 



376 



72 



1,625 



130 



41 



t7,334 



Miles. 



1,616 



1,392 



234 



45 



1,010 



1884. 



Kilometers. MOes. 



243 



16-1 



.34 



6,115 



4, 576 



431 



72 



2,275 



1,652 



64 



{4, 558 



15,826 



151 



102 



21 



3,800 



2,843 



208 



45 



1,414 



1,151 



40 



9,835 



Increase of 

 miles. 



87 

 11 

 21 

 2, 1^4 

 1,451 

 34 



404 



15 



t4,207 



* The record of Peru is incomplete as to 1877. 



t The district in Bolivia in which these roads are situated has become a part of Chili. 



t Exclusive of Peru. 



While the increase since 1877 is little more than that of the United 

 States for the past year, the advance is very rapid, and the future ac- 

 celeration may be more striking if immigration from Europe con- 

 tinues. Already the mileage is near to that of India, and may soon 

 be quite in advance of that populous Empire. The railway mileage 

 of the world was in 1884 292,106 miles, of which the United States 

 had 125,378, and at the end of 1885 our mileage was 128,900. 



The increase of mileage in 1885 and 1886 has been large, though 

 not given in the table above. The London Statist states that there 

 are 5,(J00 kilometers completed in the Argentines, and additional lines 

 of equal extent in course of construction. The great railway cen- 

 ters are Buenos Ayres and Rosario. The Great Southern line leads 

 to Bahia Blanca, and the borders of Patagonia; another runs to Ro- 

 sario. From Rosario the Great Northern and Tucuman leads north- 

 ward, and is to be extended to Bolivia. From Mercedes the Trans- 

 Andine line is to be extended to Valparaiso on the Pacific coast, con- 

 necting transportation of the Pacific and Atlantic. Other lines are 

 to connect Entre Rios, Corrientes, Santa Fd, Cordova, and San Luis. 



In Uruguay a grand trunk-line system, with lateral branches, will 

 extend from Montevideo to the Brazilian frontier, thence to Itagui 

 in Rio Grande do Sul, seeking the vast possibilities of traflQc beyond. 

 There is in operation already a stretch of 75 miles to Durasno. The 

 Northwestern of Uruguay is in course of construction. This occu- 

 pies a regi(jn above Salto, the head of navigation for sea-going ves- 

 sels, opening a productive region above the rapids. 



FARM ANIMALS OF THE WORLD. 



The following table embraces such statistics of farm animals as it 

 was practicable to obtain for each of the grand divisions of the world, 

 but many countries are necessarily omitted for want of any trust- 

 worthy infcn-mation from either official or private sources. It will be 

 understood that the totals presented below for the several grand divis- 

 ions include only the countries, and in a few instances parts of coun- 

 tries, named in the table. The figures for the United States, Canada, 

 the principal European nations, except Spain, the British colonies, 

 and a number of other countries, are official. In other cases the best 

 information obtainable from private sources has been used. The 

 returns for a few countries were not made in such a manner as to con- 



