18 



The calculation of the capacity necessary for eleva- 

 tors was based on the cultivation of approximately 24 

 million hectareas, of which ^4 millions were dedicated 

 to wheat, linseed, maize, barley, rye, and oats, producing 

 more or less, on an average, 11,000,000 tons. 



In order to carry through the project the Minister 

 of Agriculture solicited authority to issue a loan of 

 $50,000,000. 



The project was voted in the Senate, but ere it 

 could be passed through the Congress, there came the 

 change of Government, and above all, the market, affect- 

 ed by the universal shortage and consequent demand, re- 

 cuperated its vigor and with a return to apparent pros- 

 perity the matter was forgotten for the moment. 



Two short years of apparent prosperity 1916-7 and 

 the matter once more is thrust before the public atten- 

 tion, we are back again in difficult waters with our agri- 

 culture . 



The real problem is lost sight of in an attempt to 

 come to terms with our clients, and to keep time with 

 modern tendencies and needs; the financial side of the 

 question forces itself before all others to the detriment 

 of the real issues, to the obscuring of the actual causes of 

 our agricultural distress. 



THE REAL PROBLEM OBSCURED. 



If we accept the explanations of the Minister of 

 Agriculture in 1915 the difficulties which beset agricul- 

 ture at that epoch were due to the same causes as those 

 cited previously in 1913 by another Minister, and the 

 remedy proposed was the same, Elevators and Grain Gra- 

 naries . 



In both cases the remedy was directed against the 

 losses occasioned not by elements over which the farmer 

 had no control ; such as the weather, rains, frosts, etc., nor 

 by the methods of working the land, nor by decreased 

 fertility, nor by the ineptitude of the "chacarero" in 

 general, nor by any of the causes which influence pro- 

 duction up to harvesting, but against the factors which 

 enter into play after the primary labours of the farmer 

 are concluded ; that is to say against the losses provoked on 

 the commercial side of the undertaking, those which in- 

 adequate organisation in the sale of his products occa- 

 sion the farmer. 



This had in truth long been recognised as the real 

 cause of all our agricultural difficulties by every intelli- 

 gent observer, and had been made the occasion for in- 

 numerable articles in the press and of numerous studies 



