GENERAL. 21 



and finally became purchasers of land, half a league or 

 one or two square leagues in extent, and owners of many 

 thousands of sheep. 



This phase of sheep farm management in due course 

 reached its climax, and, passing the interest or share 

 given in lieu of wages, soon became much more than 

 an equivalent to a good wage ; and the interest given was 

 reduced in the new contracts to one-third, and then to 

 one-fourth, and ultimately, according to situation of 

 the land and the quality of the sheep, to one-third and 

 one-fourth of the increase, without wool ; and the 

 majority now pay their shepherds' wages in money. 

 From the first, many flock-masters, resident on their pro- 

 perty, have pursued this latter course, and consequently 

 have had a more rapid augmentation of wealth. 



Sheep-farming practice is again entering upon a new 

 phase. The comparatively higher value of land, and the 

 fact of the land within forty or sixty leagues of, and in one 

 or more directions considerably more distant from, the 

 city of Buenos Ayres, being fully stocked, is forcing the 

 tide of sheep-farming extension into other provinces and 

 other States, into the Banda Oriental (or Uruguay), Entre- 

 Bios, and Santa Fe, as well as to more distant parts of 

 Buenos Ayres, where lands, if not quite equal to those of 

 the accredited sheep lands of the latter, are lower in 

 price, more easily obtained, and are capable of being 

 much improved by stocking ; also the maximum of im- 

 provement attainable on the old system of management, 

 and from the Merino cross, under such system, has been 

 attained, and the lands are found to bear a value fully up 

 to that of the sheep and the yield of wool therefrom. The 

 fleeces are very light, the wool short, fine, and deficient 

 in strength, the result of slovenly breeding, management, 

 and overstocking of the land. In view of these things I 



