6 



It must be remarked that I am only concerned with 

 one aspect of Argentine trade, i.e. the question of exporta- 

 tion, and again, to but a limited part of that, viz. Cereal 

 Exports . 



If I do not extend my labours to other fields it is, 

 apart from the fact that I know them less, because the 

 scope of the work has to be limited to the essentials of the 

 case in order to achieve any practical results: this like- 

 wise precludes any intention on my part to make my 

 suggestions resolve all our difficulties, or any pretension 

 to cover all the country's activities and offer a panacea 

 for all our worries. 



With that aspect of the country's activities 

 which relates to the manufacture for home or 

 for export of articles of general trade, al- 

 though it is intimately bound up with the 

 general prosperity of the "camp", I am little con- 

 cerned, nor does the future before the Cattle and Sheep 

 breeders, or the Skin, Hides, and Wool Trades, together 

 with the Frigorificos, call for more than a passing men- 

 tion in these pages, despite the fact that, with agriculture, 

 they have their pressing problems. 



The Estancieros, cattle and sheep breeders, have be- 

 fore them every prospect of unparalleled prosperity, the 

 herds and flocks of Europe have been decimated, the de- 

 mand for meat of all classes is ever increasing with the 

 greater consumption per capita remarked all over the 

 world, which, quite apart from replacing what the ravages 

 and destruction of the war have occasioned, promise un- 

 limited demand : they have before them an epoch of 

 high prices, tempered only by their own capacities and 

 abilities to realise and utilise the situation to its fullest 

 extent, since the number of animals in the world cannot 

 be augmented immediate^ at will, nor can all the inten- 

 sive methods ever advocated do more than obtain a rela- 

 tively slow increase ; increased meat production will mean 

 increased consumption and for meat the saturation point 

 is still far "off. 



The theory of decreased cattle and herds is relative 

 and must be held in mind. Just as we have increased our 

 production to meet the possible demands of the future so 

 have other lands . 



In the United States there have been great increases 

 of live stock despite the heavy exportation for war pur- 

 poses. 



There are nearly half a million more horses and 

 mules in the States than in 1917, about four hundred 

 thousand more milk cows, and something like two millions 

 head of cattle more, over one million more sheep, and 

 four millions more swine. 



