THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 621 



value of the industry. I should not, indeed, be surprised if the Argen- 

 tine Eepublic should yet share with the United States the business of 

 supplying the Old World not only with its principal aliment, meat, at a 

 moderate price, but likewise with all the products of the dairy. 



The introduction of blooded cattle and their crosses with the native 

 will of course require that they should also receive greater care ; but, 

 when there has been established a more intimate connection between 

 husbandry and the breeding of cattle, this also will come. Alfalfa and 

 other succulent grasses will be grown and harvested to secure them from 

 possible starvation during the winter mouths ; while sheds or great 

 belts of timber will be planted to protect them from destroying storms. 

 The country, all these years, has gone on the idea that the industry 

 needed no other care than the gathering of its produce ; and that, as the 

 millions of cattle, which fed on the spontaneous grasses of the pampas, 

 increased and multiplied without any attention from the proprietors, 

 there was nothing more to be desired. It is these natural advantages 

 which have in great part caused the negligence which has attended this 

 industry. Everything has been left to nature, without reflecting that 

 it is very necessary to assist it, and in some cases even direct it, in order 

 to have it yield its best results. But the old ways of the cattle-growers 

 will give place to the improved methods of other countries ; the advan- 

 tages which the Argentine Eepublic offers for the raising of cattle on 

 the largest scale will be supplemented by their scientific appreciation 

 and utilization, and the industry will take a new departure of increased 

 production and of increased wealth to the nation. 



E. L. BAKER, 



Consul. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Buenos Ayres, November 21, 1883. 



