ARGENTINA 117 



This system, with its tendency to high expenditure and 

 slovenly work, has little to recommend it, yet it is largely 

 practised. By the second method the land is thrown open to 

 purchase in instalments covering a period of four or more 

 years, in order that the buyer may, if possible, purchase his 

 ground from the profits made out of it after taking possession. 

 The longer the term granted, the higher the price. It follows 

 that both the owner and the purchaser therefore look with a 

 very lenient eye on the Unseed gamble. Yet their ignorance 

 of the best principles of mixed farming can scarcely be blamed 

 on the hard-working Italians, who form the bulk of the agri- 

 cultural class. Themselves but a step removed from the 

 working peon, they are naturally disinclined to venture out 

 of a tried, though worn-out, routine. In no part of Argentina 

 is the want more keenly felt of agricultural stations under 

 systematic Government control. 



" It says much for a faith in the future of Entre Rios that the 

 Jewish Colonisation Society have sunk here one-third of the 

 millions of the late Baron Hirsch in colonies on which to estab- 

 lish their countrymen. The character of the Russian or Polish 

 Jew is not often a favourable one on which to build up a 

 thriving pastoral centre, but the colonists are rapidly adapting 

 themselves to their new surroundings. Co-operative dairy- 

 farming has been started with marked success. This growing 

 industry has the cordial assistance of the railway local manage- 

 ment, which by liberal concessions has made every effort to 

 encourage these and other settlers in their plucky uphill fight 

 for prosperity. 



" Let us recapitulate. In the north of Corrientes we find 

 cheap breeding camps, which improve rapidly on being grazed 

 by horned stock, but are unsuitable for sheep. The border- 

 line of the provinces is a halting-place, where stock may be 

 interchanged and acclimatised. Finally, on the rich lands 

 near the delta, sheep -breeding, general agriculture, and the 

 fattening of northern cattle may be successfully combined. 

 Here are all the advantages of a near cash market and cheap 

 freights for produce, an ocean port for wool and gram, sala- 

 deros for rough stock, and the great freezing factories at hand 

 to absorb unlimited quantities of finer-bred steers and wethers. 



