EESOUECES OF PARAGUAY. 325 



nuts give good results, but capitalists have hitherto chiefly favoured tobacco, 

 which is generally regarded of analogous flavour, but superior in quality, to that 

 of Havana. Perhaps nowhere else are cigars so universally consumed, the pro- 

 portion being about 24 lbs. per head of the population, or twelve times more than 

 in France. Possibly this enormous use of tobacco may partly explain the infinite 

 patience or apathy of the Guarani under all trials. 



A decisive proof of the excellence of the Paraguay leaf is afforded by the 

 esteem in which it is held by the Argentine people, probably, next to the 

 Paraguayans themselves, the greatest smokers in the world. But hitherto no 

 justice has been done to the fine qualities of this tobacco by the growers and 

 cigar-manufacturers at Asuncion. Everything in the way of preparation, which 

 ought to be done with the most scrupulous care, such as the gathering and the 

 drying of the leaves, is got through in the most primitive and careless manner. 

 Great improvements must be introduced into these processes before there can be 

 any question of introducing the Paraguay tobacco into the European markets. 

 De Bourgade states positively that the quality of the natural leaf grown on the 

 red soil in many districts of Paraguay " equals that of the finest Havana 

 growths." 



Of the live-stock, estimated at 2,000,000 before the war, no more than 15,000 

 head of cattle survived the universal waste of the land. The loss is now being 

 made good by importations from Oorrientes and Matto Grosso ; but the animals 

 run half-wild, and except in the German colony of San Bernardino, near Asun- 

 cion, no use is made of the milk, either directly or in the preparation of butter or 

 cheese. A few horses are also bred, but scarcely any sheep, goats, or pigs. Sheep 

 farming is said to be impossible owing to the presence of a poisonous plant called 

 mio-mio, while the mal de cadeira, an infectious disease, rapidly kills off horses, 

 mules, and asses in the Paraguayan part of Gran Chaco. 



Land Tenure. 



Under the Jesuit system the land was held to belong to all, while its products 

 were partly distributed to the community. Later, the dictators, as representa- 

 tives of the State, became the true owners of the soil, although each peasant had 

 his cabin and holding. After the war, nearly the whole territory having been 

 depopulated, the land again reverted to the State, which put it up to sale at so 

 much the square league, according to its quality and proximity to the markets. 

 Argentine, English, and North American speculators immediately rushed in, and 

 hundreds of thousands of acres were bought up by syndicates to be re- sold at ten 

 and twenty times their value. One capitalist alone acquired some thousand square 

 miles, and in these transactions no regard was paid to little holdings that had 

 been cultivated for generations by Guarani families, which had never needed any 

 title deeds to protect their rights. In a few years the vast solitudes were 

 assigned to absentee proprietors, and henceforth no Paraguayan peasant could hoe 

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