618 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



assumed in the Argentine Eepublic. Indeed, in the census of this prov- 

 ince, which has just been published, the figures are so insignificant that 

 no returns whatever are given of the amount of the milk, butter, and 

 cheese produced. Cows are never milked without the presence of the 

 calf to start the milk; and even then the cows are so unaccustomed to 

 the operation that they have frequently to be Isept lassoed to a stake. 

 In this city milk is either delivered at the door by milkmen {lecheros) 

 who come in from the country on horseback bringing the fluid ip tin 

 cans balanced on each side of a pack-saddle; or, what is perhaps more 

 usual, the cows with their calves tied to their tails, are driven through 

 the streets morning and evening, and the quantity which each customer 

 desires is milked at his door. The api)earance of these droves of cows 

 on the streets with their calves pulled along behind them is quite lu- 

 dicrous to foreigners, and illustrates the primitive condition of the dairy 

 industry in this country. Milk sells in this city for 8 cents a pint, and 

 butter for 40 to 60 cents per pound. 



I will not assume to say that Yankee churns are unknown in this 

 country, but a good portion of the butter which finds its way to the 

 city is churned by the lecheros on horseback, on their journey to town, 

 by the mere jolting of some cream in, the tin cans strapped across the 

 horse's back. But the most. novel mode of making butter in the inte- 

 rior is to fill a bag made of hide with sour cream, then fasten the bag 

 to one end of a long hide rope and attach the other to the leather girth 

 around a horse's body, which is then mounted by a gaucho and ridden 

 at a break-neck pace over the pampa for a sufficient length of time to 

 secure the making of the butter by bumping the milk-bag against the 

 ground. I doubt if a patent-right for this invention would sell in the 

 United States. 



PRICES OF CATTLE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



In regard to the prices of native animals, there are considerable fluc- 

 tuations corresponding to the season. Cattle that have been safely 

 wintered and have just entered upon the spring grasses, command bet- 

 ter figures than cattle that are in bad coadition after a long droug^" 

 with the winter before them. Likewise for animals raised for slaughti 

 there is considerable difference in the prices according to the Ic 

 cality. In the upper provinces, far removed from market, the pricey 

 seldom exceeds $10 to $15 for steers ; $15 to $] 8 for fat bullocks ; milch 

 cows, $10 to $15 with calf; without calf, $8 to 10. In this city for the 

 most part novillos of two years sell for $10 to $15; of three years, $15 

 to $20 ; fat bullocks, for $30 to $40 ; cows with calves, from $12 to $60; 

 work oxen, $25 to $40. For the great slaughtering and curing estab- 

 lishments (saladeros) the cattle are bought at the estancios in droves at 

 so much a head, generally from $8 to $12 " al corte,^i* while for breed- 

 ing purposes the price is still less when sold in large numbers, say 

 from $5 to $8 per head all round. 



ij*"""**!.™^*"^ " ^* *^® ""* °^'" ^'^'^ '* "■" expression which owes its existence to 

 the old onBtom, at the time of the purchase, of separating a part of the herd contain- 

 ing the old and the young at a hazard as to fthe Innmber of head, and thi> purchaser 

 18 obliged to take the quantity of cattle " cut-off," at the price per head fixed before 

 hand, whether the ammal be old or young, diseased or healthy. At present it is 

 more usual to put the animals into the corral, wliere the gate is opened only wide 

 enough to allow the escape of one at a time. The animals are thus counted, as 

 they pass through, by the parties interested: and the number beins filled the eate 

 18 closed. ° ' ° 



