CATTLE MARKETS 207 



cows represent 53 per cent, of the whole of the cattle 

 in all the departments which form the heart of the 

 breeding area east of Buenos Aires, and only 45 per 

 cent, in the departments of the north-west of Buenos 

 Aires and south of Cordoba and in the Pedernera 

 department of San Luis, where fattening is common. 



According to the 1914 Census oxen are 24 per cent, 

 of the herd in the same departments of eastern Buenos 

 Aires ; 24 per cent, also in Entre Rios ; and the propor- 

 tion rises to 31 per cent, in the lucerne area. Dolores 

 department (eastern Buenos Aires) has 64 per cent, milch 

 cows and 21 per cent. oxen. Pedernera department 

 (San Luis, in the lucerne area) has 49 per cent, cows 

 and 38 per cent, oxen. General Roca department 

 (Cordoba) has 48 per cent, cows and 34 per cent. oxen. 

 Arenales (Buenos Aires) has 39 per cent, cows and 46 per 

 cent. oxen. I 



Oxen intended for the refrigerators are bought either 

 on the ranches or at Buenos Aires, where beasts in good 

 condition are consigned to buyers, but oxen for fattening 

 are bought at fairs which are held periodically in the 

 towns of the interior. Another transaction at these 

 fairs is the trade in pedigree breeders. The best known 

 of them is held at Villa Mercedes (province of San Luis), 

 where 8,000 oxen are sold every month. At the Mercedes 

 fairs one may see Durham steers from the east of Buenos 

 Aires which are to be fattened and sent back to the 

 refrigerators or the slaughter-houses of Buenos Aires. 

 There are also Creole cattle from the north of the San 

 Luis province and Rioja which will later be eaten in 

 Mendoza or in Chile. There is, in fact, on the western 

 frontier of the Pampa no line of demarcation correspond- 

 ing to that set up in the north by the limit of the area 

 contaminated by the garrapate, separating the district 

 of Creole breeding from that of selective breeding. 

 There is free communication here between the two 



■ For Argentina as a whole the percentage is : milch cows, 55 per 

 cent. ; oxen, 26 per cent. 



