154 THE WOFLD'!^ MEAT FVTVBE 



PERU. 



The Republic occupies a long stretch of territory upon the 

 surf beaten Pacific Coast of South America, extending from near 

 the Equator to latitude nearly 20 deg. south, and thence across 

 the vast mountain range of the Abides to the Amazon Valley. 

 The sea frontage is 1400 miles in length, and the area of the 

 country is variously estimated between 440,000 and 680,000 

 square miles, portions being in dispute with its neighbors 

 Chile, Ecuador, and Colombia. There have also been boundary 

 questions with Bolivia and Brazil upon its eastern side. It has 

 a population of 4,500,000. 



Cattle and sheep are plentiful, but a lot will have to be done 

 in the way of improving their quality before this country can 

 be taken into account. There is not much prospect for cattle 

 rearing at present, it is more of a mining country, but there are 

 vast areas of rich grazing lands upon which the famous Alpaca 

 flocks are run, and the land is easily irrigated. 



Apart from the more spectacular mining industry, it is inter- 

 esting to note that the plateau and the limestone flanks of the 

 high inland Andes of Peru are grazed by thousands of llamas 

 as well as by scattered flocks of native sheep, for which the short 

 turf that grows from 11,000 ft. up to the snow line is admirably 

 adapted. An interesting and successful experiment has been 

 carried out by Messrs. Duncan, Fox & Co., who ten years ago 

 imported 6000 well-bred sheep from the Straits of Magellan to 

 form the nucleus of an Andean sheepbreeding industry on 

 modem lines. The flocks have now increased to over 40,000 

 under the care of Scotch shepherds brought from the Orkneys, 

 the whole undertaking reflecting great credit on Anglo-Saxon 

 American pastoral enterprise. We have the analogy of Pata- 

 gonia to prove that wherever the guanaco runs — to which the 

 llama and vicuna are first cousins — it is a sign of good "sheep 

 country," and the logical inference is that 2000 miles of the 

 Andean Cordillera, in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, offer for 

 sheepbreeding a region greater in area even if somewhat 

 inferior in grazing qualities, than that of all Patagonia. 



