620 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



It will be observed that there is no item in the above expense ac- 

 connt for food. This is because the animals on the place furnish the 

 aliment, which is almost exclusively meat, while the skins, hides, tallow, 

 an suet of the animals butchered lor consumption pays nearly it not 

 all the small expenses; aud, as Mr. Nap says, "it is exactly in the 

 absence of small expenses that the principal gains of the pastoral in- 

 dustry are found in the Argentine Itepublic," no other provision what- 

 ever, save what the pampas furnish, being required or at least ever made 

 use of for the maintenance of the animals when the pasturage gives 

 out. 



The above estimate is made on the basis that the estaucia is partially 

 stocked with sheep and I am informed that such estaucias are really 

 the most profitable but many of those more remote from this city 

 are exclusively devoted to horned cattle. Three thousand horned cat- 

 tle being the number usually allowed to a league of land, it is easy to 

 change the calculations in the estimate to correspond to that basis. 



Whatever may be the actual per cent, of profit which is realized from 

 cattle farming, it is yet certain that the business is lucrative, since those 

 who are engaged in this branch of industry have became the rich men 

 of the country, many of them having amassed immense fortunes. It is 

 true, however, that the increase in the value of their lands has in some 

 cases had more to do with their wealth than the product of the pasturage. 

 I know many cases where the value of well-situated estancias has 

 doubled in the course of a few years, to say nothing whatever of the 

 product. 



FUTURE OF THE CATTLE INDUSTRY OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



I have undertaken in the foregoing pages to furnish the Department 

 with an exhibit drawn from the most reliable sources at my command 

 of this leading industry of the Argentine Republic, its history, its won- 

 derful development, its details, its products, and its profits. What I 

 have accomplished is perhaps hardly what might have been expected 

 in reply to the circular which was sent to me; but a strict compliance 

 therewith was impossible, from the fact that there are no horned 

 cattle in this country whose importation would be an improvement to 

 our existing breeds and to productions of the dairy. At the same time, 

 however, it has seemed to me that the manner in which the great cattle 

 estancias of the river a Plate are managed and made productive was 

 matter of sufficient interest, not merely to our cattle-breeders but to our 

 people generally, to warrant the extended mention I have made of them, 

 even though they offer but few points which it would be worth while 

 for us to imitate. 



In my opinion, however, the cattle industry of this country, if not in 

 its infancy, is still in its undeveloped state, and that it will hereafter 

 assume far greater proportions and be prosecuted with far better results 

 than it has yet done. In the past cattle were only raised in this country 

 for their hides; at present they are raised for their hides and the prod- 

 uct of their carcasses. The time' is coming, with the influx of intelli- 

 gent labor from Europe, when to these the products of the dairy will 

 also be added. To this end it is necessary that an improved breed, per- 

 haps the cross of the Hereford with the native cow, shall take the placo 

 of the native (Creole) cattle, which at present constitute the stock of the 

 country. This change is no\r gradually going on, and a few more years 

 will shown a vast difference in the qualities of the breed, while the pro- 

 duction of milk, butter, and cheese will double, if not treble, the present 



