186 THE PLAIN OF THE PAMPAS 



further north, but they are not so completely wiped 

 out as in the lucerne belt, and the flocks are still two 

 fifths of the flocks of twenty years ago. 



In the province of Entre Rios and south of Corrientes 

 the number of sheep continued to rise until 1908, but 

 the increase is only in the northern departments, outside 

 the agricultural belt. The southern departments, which 

 are large growers of wheat and flax, lost one-third of 

 their flocks between 1895 and 1908. 



Cattle-breeding was restricted for a long time by 

 the difficulty of disposing of its products. The hides 

 alone found ready buyers. The making and export 

 of salt beef dates from the eighteenth century, and it 

 was to help this industry that the expeditions to the 

 salt-beds of the Pampa and the journeys of salters to 

 the Patagonian coast were organized. From 1792 

 to 1796 no less than 39,000 quintals of jerked beef 

 were sent from the Rio de la Plata to Havana. But 

 the market for salt meat [tasajo) was always limited. 

 It consisted only of the Antilles and Brazil, and the 

 saladeros never fully exploited the meat-producing 

 capacity of the Argentine herds. The crisis of the 

 saladeros occurred before the time when the refrigerators 

 began to compete with them. By 1889 there were 

 only three left in the province of Buenos Aires. 



Although the price of cattle was not very remunera- 

 tive, and provided no incentive to improve the breeding ; 

 although the saladero was not at all exorbitant, merely 

 asking for animals in good condition, the improvement 

 of the herd by introducing selected pedigree-breeders 

 had begun about the middle of the nineteenth century. 

 The Basque dairies established in the district near 

 Buenos Aires sold pedigree-calves to the ranches, and 

 these were used for breeding purposes.^ About 1880 

 the advance of sheep-breeding pressed the cattle-ranches 



» This is, in a special form, the first instance of specialization, in 

 the cantons of the Pampean region, in the breeding industry, 

 properly so called (producing breeders). 



I 



