49 



in<r how apparently nnsnnmmntable disadvantages may 

 be overcome with the exercise of intelligent methods. 



From the principal wheat growing centres of the 

 V. S. A. of North America and Canada, to the 

 board, cereal produce has to traverse half th > continent. 

 Economy in transport by rail and by boat, canal, lake. 

 river, to the points of embarcation. where it is finally 

 shipped to Europe lias to be carefully studied. Even 

 the most important centres of home consumption, (the 

 chief seats of industry) are thousands of kilometres from 

 the wheat growing' region. 



Compared to Argentina her obstacles are immense. 

 North America has only one natural advantage in her 

 grain business : this is that once on the sea board her 

 cereals are within ten days of the European ports, but 

 even this advantage is relative, for transport by steamer 

 is one 'tenth in cost to that by rail, and North America 

 has ten times the land distance to haul its products by 

 vail before they reach the sea board, compared to the 

 Argentine Republic. 



OUR NATURAL ADVANTAGES. 



The Argentine Republic, through the great natural 

 advantage of the situation of her wheat fields, is able to 

 convey her wheat by rail* over short, easy stretches to - 

 ports for embarcation, all of which are within a relative- 

 ly short distance from the zones of cultivation; the 

 maximum haul rarely exceeds a hundred miles, and this 

 too without a single natural obstacle to increase the cost 

 of moving the cereals. This natural facility has been *>ne 

 of the most powerful stimulants to her rapid agricul- 

 tural development. 



Despite the favours which nature has showered on 

 the country in regard to eliminating obstacles to easy 

 transportation, to placing our wheat fields alongside the 

 sea board, and to giving the country a lengthy river and 

 sea coast to facilitate maritime carriage, Argentina is the 

 country where grain growing is least profitable of all, 

 and if we compare her to North America, absolutely be- 

 hind and dependent on her less favoured sister in all that 

 regards, prices, quantities, facilities, etc. 



Undeniably the transport of the millions of tons of 

 cereals which constitute the chief exports of the Argen- 

 tine Republic, is nevertheless no easy problem, nor doe*s 

 the enumeration of natural advantages pre-suppose that 

 the handling of our huge grain trade is just as easily 

 resolved. 



