AGRICULTURE. 151 



agricultural which is comprehended in the term 'farming,' 

 will derive point from the view presented by the foregoing 

 facts. The consequence of feeding animals on a ' farm,' 

 is the furnishing the farmer on the spot with, in the 

 excrements, the means of maintaining the fertility or pro- 

 ductiveness of his land ; and the result of efficient tillage 

 and manuring is to augment many fold the yield of the 

 land, and, by consequence, enable the farmer to maintain 

 a much greater number of animals on a given space, and 

 to maintain them better, rear them of a better class, and 

 render their products of greater value. 



The tillage destroys an inferior vegetation, and leads to 

 the production of a better, more abundant, and richer 

 one ; and better food produces greater development, better 

 flesh, better wool, and more of them. 



vn. 



The agriculture of Buenos Ayres and the sister states is, 

 as a rule, limited and rude, and, with very few exceptions, 

 improvident. The crops comprise a few cereals, two of 

 which alone are grown to any extent, arid these year 

 after year on the same land. Maize and wheat are the 

 chief grain crops ; barley is also grown, but to a less 

 extent. 



In the immediate vicinity of the cities, the usual course 

 on the farms (chacras) is to take consecutive crops of 

 these cereals until the soil to the depth to which their 

 roots penetrate, having yielded up to them such a pro- 

 portion of its available mineral food, ceases to produce 

 sufficiently abundant crops to render their cultivation 

 profitable. Potatoes, pumpkins, and the like, occupy 

 but a very small extent of land. Eecourse is then had 

 to a deeper-rooted plant, and the land is laid down with 



