98 THE WORLDS MEAT FUTURE 



brought back by different settlers, and also in a measure 

 reveals the secret of Argentina's steady advance. 



' The Argentine constitution provides for certain provinces, 

 which are distinct from the so-called territories. The former 

 are supposed to be self -governing. They have the full right 

 of internal management and a legislative body of their own. 

 The territories are under the direct .control of the central 

 National Government, which appoints to them their military 

 governors and civil judges. For this additional reason it is 

 difficult to generalise concerning Argentina. 



" The first settlers of modern times came to Patagonia from 

 the Falkland Islands. These outlying specks of a former con- 

 tinent, luckily for the Republic, form part of the British Em- 

 pire, else to-day the plains of Patagonia might have remained 

 as in the time of Darwin, peopled but by vast herds of guanaco 

 and the scattered tents of some roving Indians. The islands 

 are pre-eminently adapted for the breeding of sheep, and it is 

 calculated that at the present time over 2.000,000 head graze 

 on the short, wind-swept pastures. Eighteen years ago the 

 British Government stopped the sale of fiscal lands. This, 

 combined with the large profits that the well-stocked farms 

 had been yielding, induced certain pioneers to try their luck 

 on the reputed barren mainland of Magellan. The shipment 

 of the first flocks over the .'{(•() odd miles that separate the island 

 from the treacherous coast, was attended with great risk and 

 but the result amply justified the bold venture. In 1882 

 the lands now occupied by the Patagonian Sheep-farming 

 Company were grazed by only 18,000 sheep. These same lands 

 now support within the boundary fences close on 300,000 head. 

 This total has been arrived at with no further purchase of 

 stock than those necessary to bring in fresh blood, and in spite 

 of severe winter Losses. 



" The first stations Mere planted close to the entrance of the 

 Straits, and land was rapidly taken up along the first and 

 second Narrows. These necks of the sea are but 2 to 4 miles 

 broad, so it is not surprising, after the five years necessary to 

 get the new stations into working order had passed, to find 

 sheep being shipped over to the fertile shores of the " Tierra 

 Del," as it is dubbed with true Anglo-Saxon brevity, The 



