178 STATES OF THE EIVER PLATE. 



proprietors of land and stock by simply rounding a flock 

 of sheep. Numbers arrive in this country, particularly 

 those from Ireland, with this idea, much to their own 

 prejudice ; many able-bodied fellows, when good situations 

 and good wages are offered them in industrial occupations, 

 answer that they did not come out here to work, but to 

 be proprietors and flock-masters, and seeking in vain their 

 ' Eldorado,' become loafers in the ' campo,' addicted to 

 cafia (rum) drinking. 



A right understanding of the state of things and what 

 is required here, would lead to the advantage of new- 

 comers and established residents. There is an unquestion- 

 able ' Eldorado ' in the Eio de la Plata, but it is for 

 the industrious, the intelligent, the practical, and the 

 enterprising. 



Notwithstanding that lands have increased so much 

 in value, they are yet, as I have said, at a low figure, 

 and have many stages of equally important augmenta- 

 tion of value to go through. Stock, though of very 

 much greater value than a few years ago, is still low in 

 figure. 



This industry has simply passed through one stage of 

 its progress and now enters upon another, requiring 

 merely the employment of more capital and more intelli- 

 gent industry to yield again what it has already yielded 

 viz. : large and accumulative profits. 



II. 



The value of estancia land, as a matter of course, varies 

 according to its quality and position ; its greater or less 

 adaptability for stock-farming in general, and sheep-farming 

 in particular, as the branch of rural industry which is 



