ARGENTINA 113 



combined with the near presence of large bodies of fresh water, 

 which convert it during the summer months into a gigantic 

 forcing house. The climate at this season is one of enervating 

 humidity. Maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, and mandioca 

 solve the easy problem of existence for a shiftless lower class. 

 Those who have higher ambitions may undertake the cultiva- 

 tion of a tobacco patch, selling a poor quality product at 

 equivalent prices. Orange groves are numerous ; the diffi- 

 culty lies in procuring suitable labour to harvest and convey 

 the golden fruit to market. Peanuts will produce abundantly, 

 and the crop is readily bought up by the various oil mills 

 established on the banks of the Parana. 



" The real Corrientes industry (the word is somewhat mis- 

 leading) is stock-raising, and that of a most primitive kind. 

 Sheep are relegated to a second place. The dependence of the 

 estanciero is on his cattle — the red-coloured, long-horned kind, 

 that have become as famous as their brothers cf early Texas, 

 and meet with as little favour in the eyes of the city butcher. 

 They have won their place on the principle of the survival of 

 the fittest, for they five and flourish in places where orthodox 

 breeds die of redwater, Texas fever, and similar weaknesses. 

 They may be taken on forced marches through drought- 

 stricken regions, and their skeletons will still survive. They 

 can wander belly-deep into the great leechy morasses, and 

 browse contentedly on the floating water-grass. Herdsmen 

 freely admit that their bloated appearance after such a diet 

 is not the sign of a firm fatness, but hitherto that has been 

 deemed of but little moment. For at the long last the merit 

 of the Correntino cattle lies in their numbers ; they are found 

 on the savannahs of Paraguay, on the uplands of Brazil and 

 Rio Grande. From all points they converge to where, -on the 

 lower reaches of the big rivers, the factories (over a dozen in 

 number) he in wait for them. In Southern Entre Rios, across 

 the river in the ' Banda Oriental ' — to give to the Republic of 

 Uruguay its old Portuguese title — wherever the carcases are 

 there the saladeros are gathered together. In them the steers 

 are chopped into jerked meat for Brazil and Cuba, discrimi- 

 nated into Paysandu tongues, or boiled down to reappear later 

 as Bovril and Liebig's Extract on the dining-tables of effete 



