TEMPERATE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS 61 



of their holdings to small cultivators without capital resources, 

 on the share-crop payment system. The result is a lack of interest 

 in the land, which seldom receives any fertilisers and becomes 

 impoverished. In the outlying districts, suitable for stock raising, 

 considerable capital expenditure is required for fencing, for the 

 improvement of pastures, and for the means of controlling animal 

 diseases which are apt to be destructive among both cattle and 

 sheep. 



The question arises in this inquiry whether future developments 

 are more likely to favour animal industries than crop-raising 

 Down to about the year 1900 Argentina was mainly a pastoral 

 country, and pastoral exports greatly exceeded in value those of 

 cereals. Since that time there has been a change, and on an average 

 of recent yea r s agricultural exports have come to exceed the 

 pastoral. In some ways animal-raising industries have suffered. 

 Cattle raising has been concentrated more in the alfalfa provinces 

 (Northern Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Corrientes) and sheep-farming 

 has been driven further south with the progress of wheat culti- 

 vation. It will be noted that with the exception of wheat, the 

 cereals grown in Argentina may be classed a^ animal feedstuffs, 

 and the increased production of these, therefore, favours the pro- 

 duction of animal foodstuffs, if not in Argentina, at any rate, in 

 the countries that import these materials. Various authorities 

 are agreed that there is every prospect of great developments in 

 pig-raising for meat-export purposes 1 , and this would cause some 

 of the animal feedstuffs, e.g., maize, to be consumed locally instead 

 of being exported. At present, however, the prevailing Argentine 

 fashion of leaving animals too much to take care of themselves is 

 hostile to the development of pig-raising, 2 and, indeed, except on 

 the large " estancias," to that cf sheep and cattle farming on 

 modern lines. 



Cereal cultivation has received great impetus, as in North 

 America, from the fact that quick cash returns are possible. 3 The 

 progress of stock-raising in Argentina in its present and future 

 developments requires considerable capital outlays. It is said that 

 large areas are still available under pressure for stock raising, 

 ' but the glasses are too coarse and unpalatable and must be re- 

 placed by short grasses, alfalfa, rye grass, barley and oats " 4 ; 



1 R. H. Hooker : " Meat Supply of the United Kingdom," Statistical 

 Journal, June, 1909, p. 351. U.S. Daily Commerce Reports, Nov. 19th, 

 1910 : " Pigs are bound to become more important with the growth of in- 

 tensive farming." U.S. Dept. of Agric., Bureau Animal Industry, Bulletin 

 48 : It is quite safe to predict that some day pork will be one of the chief 

 sources of Argentine wealth." 



2 See U.S. Daily Commerce Reports, Nov. 19th, 1910. 



3 But more with reference to the small tenant than the large land-owner, 

 The river provinces, owing to summer rainfall, are in any case better adapted 

 to alfalfa than to wheat. Elsewhere also, labour is short, and that available is 

 better suited to cattle-raising through character and training than to cereal 

 production. 



4 Report of British Consul at Buencs Aires for the year 1912-13. 



