340 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



Agriculture. 



Agriculture and pasturage constitute the main sources of wealth, and with the 

 increase of population cultivated land continues to encroach on the grazing- 

 grounds. In 1891 about 1,200,000 acres were estimated to be under wheat, 

 maize, and other crops, the yield of which already exceeds the local demand. 

 The vine, unfortunately already attacked by phylloxera, flourishes, especially in 

 the Salto district. 



Of the live-stock, sheep alone have increased in recent years; both horses and 

 horned cattle, though still relatively very numerous, having greatly fallen off 

 during the last decade. Mulhall estimates the annual returns from stock- 

 breeding at about £7,500,000, and from husbandry at £2,500,000, most of this 

 wealth being owned, by strangers. Landed property is burdened with heavy 

 mortgages, amounting in the aggregate to £4,000,000 in 1893. In the territory 

 of the Republic are comprised 20,000 urban and 25,000 rural estates exceeding 

 £120 in value, and consequently subject to the impost. It thus appears that 

 nearly one-half of all the heads of families in the State are freeholders. Accord- 

 ing to the returns of the national wealth, more than half of the public domain 

 belongs to foreigners, mostly Basques and Italians ; but towards the frontiers of 

 Rio Grande the richest landowners are Brazilians. In Monte Yideo itself two- 

 thirds of the real estate is in the hands of immigrants from Europe. 



The Meat-Packing Industry. 



As in Argentina and Rio Grande do Sul, but even to a relatively greater 

 extent, various preparations of meat form the staple industry. Till recently the 

 animals ran free on the pastures, and the heaviest work of the estancias was 

 connected with their capture, branding and sorting for sale, the shambles, or stock. 

 But these antiquated methods now survive only in the northern provinces. In 

 the south, where the land has risen greatly in value, the cattle are no longer 

 allowed to run free, but are confined to enclosures, and more carefully tended. 

 About a million are slaughtered every year, partly for the local demand, which 

 may be estimated at about one per head of the population, partly for treatment in 

 the saladeros. 



None of the various attempts to export the meat in a frozen state have proved 

 quite successful, the process being attended by a loss of flavour. Hence a general 

 return has been made to the old methods of tinning and jerking, though the 

 work is carried on with greatly improved appliances, and in a much more 

 methodic manner. In the large saladeros there is no waste, everything — hides, 

 suet, bones, offal — being utilised, and much of the refuse converted into valuable 

 fertilisers. 



Trade — Communications — Education. 



Of the foreign trade, which continues to increase from decade to decade, 

 about four-fifths consist of the products of the saladeros and of the cattle-farms. 



