116 TTTE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



the land with blood and iron for over twenty years. And these 



have been hut the main episodes in the drama. 



" In Entre Rioa wheat sowing is not. as in the Pampa region, 

 a mere preliminary to laying down alfalfa. That plant has 

 here a life of three to six years, but it does not attain the 

 phenomenal growth of the west, nor. in the absence of near 

 surface strata of water, is it so capable of withstanding a pro- 

 longed drought. Agriculture here stands purely on its own 

 general merits. The lesson to be learned by the colonists is 

 that farming for cereals alone is next-of-kin to piteh-and-toss. 

 and that stock give the most sure and profitable returns when 

 combined with intelligent agriculture. This fact has been 

 sufficiently demonstrated by long years of bitter experience in 

 our own colonies and by the farmers of the United States. 



* The Province to-day carries 3,000,000 head of cattle, and 

 although most of them, as in Corrientes, are native bred, they 

 contain a growing leaven of finer breeds, notably Shorthorn, 

 which are rapidly improving the mass. The diseases to which 

 these are subject are the same as in the other northern and 

 Western provinces, on which I have already touched. Car- 

 buncle is less prevalent than in Cordoba, and apparently does 

 not get such a permanent hold on the ground. On the other 

 hand. Texas fever is even worse than in Santa Fe, on account 

 of the herds of cattle which are constantly marching south- 

 wards through the tick-infested marshes of Corrientes. The 

 remedies for the first consist, as elsewhere, in inoculation by 

 Pasteur's lymph ; for the second, timely and frequent dippings, 

 to which should be added the burning of all dry, rush -grown 

 bottoms at their periods of maximum infestation by the tick. 



" The quality of the native-bred horses of Entre Rios is 

 famous throughout the Plate. In proof thereof, they have 

 furnished in former years most of the famous ' criollo ' polo 

 ponies and to-day give one of the best foundations for crossing 

 with a faster strain. 



"Tracts of ground held by the large landowners are being 

 broken up for agriculture in two ways. By the first the 

 colonist works the ground on shares with the owner (who 

 usually has to advance the money for preliminary expenses), 

 leaving the ground when exhausted and moving on to fresh. 



