Argentina's Agricultural Progress. 45 



art of breeding for the dairy. The return of butter fat is 

 usually 4 per cent. Upon one estancia alone there are eight 

 thousand cows milked daily, a number which probably consti- 

 tutes the world's record. 



What becomes of the skim ? It is usually thrown away. 

 The Argentine breeder knows all about pigs and the allied 

 industries of the dairy trade, but the time is not yet ripe for their 

 introduction. The estanciero is waiting for the pig man to come, 

 and there are few things more certain than that within a decade 

 Argentina will be second only to the United States of America 

 in the export of bacon, ham, and dairy bye-products. 



The awakening of the dairy trade in Argentina promises to 

 introduce new phases to the rural industries of that country. 

 Mixed farming will be substituted for grass-feeding live stock, 

 and agriculture in certain zones will become a permanent feature 

 of the new estancia. The rotation of crops, the use of manures, 

 the whole economy of the farm will be evolved from the present 

 homely practice of milking grass-fed cows, separating the cream, 

 and throwing the skim away. Agricultural production will be- 

 come more intense, and when it is remembered that anywhere 

 within a two hundred mile radius of the city of Buenos Aires, 

 the soil, climate, and rainfall are suitable for every branch of 

 rural trade, from bee-keeping and jam making to breeding prime 

 steers for the European market, the success awaiting these steps 

 in agricultural industry ceases to be conjectural. 



Herbert Gibson, 



Vice-President of the Argentine Rural Society, 



