GENERAL. 19 



of peaches, apricots, and nectarines sown for fruit, but 

 the majority for faggots, and are cut for this purpose every 

 third or fourth year. Other plantations are of paraiso and 

 acacia, and supply posts for fencing purposes ; also willow 

 groves and Lombard poplars. In the Banda Oriental, 

 Entre-Eios, and in the islands of the rivers, there are, 

 besides these, woods of tala, espinilla, goiava, and an 

 exceedingly hard wood known as nandubay, valuable for 

 fences, cattle pens (corrales), &c. This wood is durable 

 in the extreme, so much so that posts that have stood in 

 the soil for a hundred years have been taken up from the 

 corrales perfectly sound. In the villas and gardens, in the 

 outskirts of the cities, there are vineyards, orange groves, 

 pomegranates, apple and pear trees in great variety. The 

 vegetables and flowers are of the sorts cultivated in the 

 flower-gardens, and green-houses, and in the kitchen- 

 gardens of England. Many of the hedges of gardens and 

 villas are of the varieties of aloe, cactus, prickly pear, 

 elder and blackberry. 



Outside the agricultural farms of Buenos Ayres, the 

 great sheep-walks almost monopolise the campo. The 

 development of this interest has been rapid and important 

 in the extreme during the past thirty years. Estancia after 

 estancia, district after district, has passed into the hands of 

 the sheep farmer, or the estancias have been dedicated to 

 this by the owners. To the British settler, the country is 

 mainly indebted for this, and it has grown year by year 

 into greater importance under their auspices, while they 

 have become some of the largest landowners in the country. 



The value of sheep has increased tenfold within the 

 past twenty years, and land has improved in value in the 

 same ratio, though at first more slowly. I remember 

 the time when flocks of sheep were offered and sold at 

 IS or 10$ per head ; and a few years prior to this, Creole 



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