AWAKENING OF ARGENTINA AND CHILE 



127 



A LAND OF VAST POSSIBILITIES 



Equivalent in area to the region which 

 stretches northwest from the Alleghanies 

 to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, 

 equal, to the States of Alabama, Missis- 

 sippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indi- 

 ana, and Illinois in extent, beautiful in 

 upland landscape of verdant hills and 

 valleys, this territory invites a dense 

 population whose prosperity would be 

 assured under a good government. 



But divided as it is by arbitrary politi- 

 cal boundaries, misgoverned with vari- 

 ous degrees of misgovernment, it lies 

 inert. The failure of individual and gov- 

 ernmental initiative, the isolation of the 

 frontier, where weak settlements face the 

 forest, the lack of roads and railroads 

 leave the interior still a part of the wil- 

 derness. 



Santos in the north and Montevideo in 

 the south are the outlets of this rich coun- 

 try. Both are important shipping ports, 

 from which railways radiate westward 

 and northwestward. Eventually they will 

 be connected with one another and with 

 Asuncion, on the Paraguay, by lines that 

 will develop and will exploit its resources. 

 Montevideo holds a position naturally 

 superior to that of Buenos Aires, and 

 were it the capital of an equally great re- 

 public might rival the latter in wealth and 

 population ; but, limited as Uruguay is by 

 the Argentine and Brazilian possessions 

 to the proportions of a petty State, it con- 

 stitutes the hinterland of a secondary 

 city, which Montevideo will long and per- 

 haps always continue to be. 



The Rio de la Plata separates two 

 widely different districts — the wooded 

 uplands of Uruguay and the treeless 

 pampas of Argentina. The former is the 

 southern extension of 4:he great region of 

 Brazil, and although now largely brought 

 into cultivation, it is a region where trees 

 flourish as a part of the indigenous flora. 

 The pampas, on the other hand, have al- 

 ways been treeless until plantations of 

 eucalyptus or orchards of fruit trees were 

 laid out upon the estates of wealthy Ar- 

 gentines. 



PAMPAS COMPARED WITH PRAIRIES 



The pampas are a vast grassy plain. 

 Is there anything more to be said? As 



an Englishman put it, "What can you say 

 about a bally billiard table except that it 

 "is a bally billiard table?" Yet the plain 

 of the pampas is not like the great west- 

 ern plains of the United States. The 

 latter are broken by gullies, furrowed by 

 streams, traversed by river valleys. The 

 pampas are not. 



Among all landscapes of the world 

 there is none more meadow-like than the 

 flat pampa, with the cattle grazing in the 

 rich grass; but the meadow grass hides 

 no meandering brook. Hour after hour 

 and day after day you may ride without 

 crossing a stream. You will, however, 

 encounter many shallow pools and lake- 

 lets. 



The pampa looks so fiat, so featureless ! 

 But is it? Watch a horseman galloping 

 away toward the horizon, toward which 

 he rises silhouetted against the sky. Soon 

 he sinks and drops out of sight, having 

 apparently ridden over the edge of the 

 world ; but an hour later he may rise 

 again, topping a more distant swell of the 

 vast grassy ocean surface. North, east, 

 south, or west it is the same — a billowy 

 plain, hollowed and molded by the wind, 

 the free-flowing air, which in place of 

 running water has sculptured the im- 

 mense expanse of fine brown earth. 



THE AMERICAN WINDMILL'S GREAT 

 SERVICE 



It is a paradise for cattle in the average 

 year, when the rain fills the lakelets and 

 the pasture, whether freshly green or 

 cured to natural hay, affords abundant 

 feed. Occasionally a dry season inter- 

 venes ; the water pools dry up ; the plain 

 becomes a waterless desert. Formerlv in 

 such years disaster overcame the herd- 

 man and his herds. Lingering by the 

 shrinking pools, hundreds of thousands 

 of cattle and sheep suffered from thirst 

 and famine till they fell and mummified 

 in the dust. It is somewhat different 

 now. 



The seasons still vary inexorablv, and 

 from time to time comes one of drought 

 and loss ; but it has lost its gravest men- 

 ace. Scattered over the pampa, wherever 

 they may be wanted, are windmills, and 

 beside each mill is a tank and drinking 

 trough. The wind, which so sculptured 



