BUTTER A LA BASQUE 237 



the country has been the expansion of the 

 Argentine railways, the whole of which, with 

 a few exceptions, are owned by English com- 

 panies. " Throughout the agricultural zone," 

 says Mr. Gibson, " new branches are being 

 made, carrying the colonist and the tools of 

 his craft to virgin lands, and putting him in 

 touch with his buying market. Every lineal 

 mile of new railway calls 15,000 acres of land 

 into cultivation." 



But the point with which we are here mainly 

 concerned is the evidence afforded as to the 

 effective part that organization has played in 

 the results to which Argentina has attained, and 

 concerning this I venture to quote the following 

 passages from Mr. Gibson's contribution : — 



Fifteen vears ago the traveller in Argentina would 

 arrive at an estancia, where the mobs of cattle numbered 

 thousands, to rind that he had to drink tea without milk, 

 and mark as a token of honour to the guest a tin of Danish 

 salt butter on the table. The dairy supply of the great 

 citv of Buenos Aires was in the hands of Basques, who 

 milked their cows in unclean yards, and rode off in the 

 morning astride a jangling pannier of tin cans, the cream 

 churning into butter as the horse trotted through the 

 lanes of the suburbs. Thus they cantered into town to 



dispense their wares from door to door, mid their sole 

 competitor was the pedestrian cow-herd, who drove his 

 kine through the busiest streets, and, in answer to the hail 

 of the housewife, supplied milk "fresh from the cow." 



