lil> CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



assumed in the Argentine Republic. Indeed, in the census of this prov- 

 ince, which hasjuM been published, the figures are so insignificant that 

 no return." whatever are given of the amount of the milk, butter, and 

 cheese produced. Cows are never milked without the presence of the 

 calf to start the milk : and even then the cows are so unaccustomed to 

 the operation that they have, frequently to be kept lassoed to a stake. 

 Jn ihis city milk is either delivered at the door by milkmen (lecheros) 

 who come in t'lom the country on horseback bringing the lluid in tin 

 cans baianet d on each side of a pack-saddle; or, what is perhaps more 

 UMial. the cows with their calves tied to their tails, are driven through 

 the streets morning and evening, and the quantity which each customer 

 dcsiies is milked at his door. The appearance of these droves of cows 

 on the streets with their calves pulled along behind them is quite lu- 

 dicrous to foreigners, and illustrates the primitive condition of the dairy 

 induMiy in this country. Milk sells in this city for S cents a pint, and 

 butter for -10 to 00 cents per pound. 



1 will not assume to say that Yankee churns are unknown in this 

 country, but a go;ul portion of the butter which finds its way to the 

 city is churned by the h.'thcros on horseback, on their journey to town, 

 by the men- jolting of some cream in the tin cans strapped across the 

 horse's ba-'k. Hut the most novel mode of making butter in the inte- 

 rior is to iill a bag made of hide with sour cream, then fasten the bag 

 to one end of a long hide rope and attach the other to the leather girth 

 around a horse's body, which is then mounted by a fjaudio and ridden 

 at a break- neck pace over the pampa for a sufficient length of time to 

 secure the making of the butter by bumping the milk-bag against the 

 ground. 1 doubt if a patent-right for this invention would sell in the 

 United States. 



TRICES OF CATTLE IX TILE ARCEXTIXE REPUBLIC. 



In regard to the prices of native animals, there are considerable iluc- 

 t nations corresponding to the season. Cattle that have been safely 

 wintered and have just entered upon the spring grasses, command bet- 

 ter figures than cattle that are in bad condition after a long drought 

 with the v, inter before them. Likewise for animals raised for slaughter 

 there is considerable difference in the prices according to the lo- 

 cality. In tin- upper provinces, far removed from market, the price 

 seldom ( xceeds slo to s!5 for steers: !."> to slS for fat bullocks; milch 

 cows, sio to ?i:> with calf; without calf, $S to in. In this city for the 

 most pail n<,riUnx of two years sell for slO to *lf>: of three years, $15 

 to *JO ; fat. bullocks. fe,r *.">() to s-10 ; cows with calves, from *'l- to sOO; 

 work oxen, iijij."") jo s.jo. For I he great slaughtering and curing estab- 

 lishments (y,n!<<<i< ><;:<) the cattle are bought at the cx'tHU'inK in droves at 

 Komuch a head, gem-rally from *5 to sli* *' I ror/r." * while for breed- 

 ing purposes the price is still less when sold in large numbers, say 

 from >'.) to s s pc; head all round. 



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