166 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE. 



arrangement of potreros, alfalferes, and tillage lands 

 under fence. Nos. 5, 3, and 1 represent grass potreros, 

 of dimensions proportioned to the number of rams pro- 

 posed to be kept in them. To render these productive 

 of rich nutritious grasses, a good top dressing of corral 

 manure should be given, and thistles and other weeds cut 

 down or ' spudded ' out. If the ' soft ' thistle, it should 

 be cut early, and the cutting repeated so as to admit of 

 the growth of grasses, which they would otherwise choke 

 off; if the 'hard ' thistle it would require to be 'spudded' 

 out, and so with other weeds, according as they are of 

 annual or perennial growth. This treatment (manuring 

 and cleaning) will abundantly repay the outlay. Nos. 2, 

 4, and 6 represent alfalfares. One of these, or a portion 

 of one, should be used for the supply of green alfalfa, to 

 be given to the rams in the evening, in the sheds or cor- 

 rals (in racks), during the spring, summer, and autumn ; 

 the others could be cut for hay for morning and evening 

 feed of the rams, and as a reserve for any case of need for 

 the flocks, and to supply the ewes with a little dry nib- 

 bling for a week or two before lambing. 



o O 



These alfalfares would be made enormously productive 

 if a heavy manuring were given the land before ploughing 

 for sowing. In addition to this manuring, the deeper the 

 tillage the better ; as the result of deep tillage will be the 

 infinitely more rapid and luxuriant growth of the plant : 

 and moreover, it will be much less influenced and pre- 

 judiced by drought. Under such a preparation and 

 treatment, the yield of one square of land would equal 

 that of at least two squares unmanured and of shallow 

 tillage. The economic position would be this ; half the 

 land, half (or one third) of the seed (four and a-half or 

 five arrobas to the square would be ample), more or less 

 half the labour, and half the fencing ; against sixty or 



