184 THE PLAIN OF THE PAMPAS 



sheep-rearing industry. From 1866 onward it was 

 decided to use the hides and tallow also. As the 

 material of the grease-works was cheap, they spread all 

 over the sheep zone. Many ranches had works of 

 their own. From 1867 to 1877 the saladeros that had 

 been built long before for killing cattle undertook 

 the slaughter of sheep on a large scale. The number 

 of sheep sold to the saladeros rose to 3,000,000 a year. 

 In 1880 the first cargoes of frozen mutton were sent 

 abroad. The creation of the grease- works had made 

 no difference to the breeding, but the building of the 

 refrigerators brought about a rapid transformation 

 of the flock. The Lincoln breed, heavier and more 

 meaty, displaced the fine-wool Merinos. This substitu- 

 tion of Lincolns for Merinos is now complete through- 

 out the Pampean region. 



Until 1880 sheep-rearing was concentrated east of 

 the Salado, north and south of Buenos Aires, beginning 

 with a line that passes through Quilmes, San Vicente, 

 Pilar, and Campana, which marks the limit of the 

 suburban zone. In addition it had spread on the 

 right bank of the lower Salado as far as the foot of the 

 Sierra de Tandil, in an area where the first stations date 

 from 1823, though the population did not make much 

 progress until after 1855. About 1880, after the 

 pacification of the Pampa, the sheep-farms began to 

 expand westward. It was then that the wool of the 

 pasto fuerte appeared on the Buenos Aires market. 

 It came from the Azal district in 1870, from Olavarria 

 in 1880, from Bolivar in 1885, and from Villegas in 

 1890. The Census of 1889 ascribes 51,000,000 sheep 

 to the province of Buenos Aires ; that of 1895 gives 

 much the same figure (52,000,000). Detailed com- 

 parison of the two enumerations shows that the expansive 

 movement to the west continued, and was completed 

 during this period. The flocks in the north-west zone 

 of the province (Lincoln, Villegas, Trenque, Lauquen) 

 more than doubled; the flocks of the south-west area 



