1909.] The Agricultural Resources of Argentina. 707 



the most favourable conditions for its practice, the increase of 

 the wheat area in Argentina depends upon the increase of 

 the rural population and on the construction of more railways, 

 It is by these, and not by any limitation, so-called, of the 

 available wheat area that the augmentation of the wheat 

 production of the Republic is to be measured. It would be 

 as conjectural to state that when 30 million acres are under 

 wheat in that country the available area had been fully 

 occupied, as it was conjectural ten years ago to place the 

 limit of that available area at 15 million acres. 



The average yield of wheat in Argentina is 800 kilo- 

 grammes per hectare, or say 11.3 bushels per acre. Apart 

 from the large area of land available for wheat and not yet 

 put under cultivation, the question not unnaturally arises 

 whether the intensiveness of the production is not likely to 

 increase. Perhaps it may be conceded that, apart from the 

 ravages of locusts and other accidental causes contributing 

 to diminish the average return from so extensive an area, 

 the rapid change from mild spring to the hot suns of early 

 summer, and the quickness with which the cereals ripen, may 

 affect the yield as compared to the slower growth of the 

 English climate. How far climatic conditions may perma- 

 nently affect the wheat return has scarcely yet been deter- 

 mined by Argentine experience ; but the cause of the 

 comparatively small yield per acre may be more rightly 

 attributed to the insufficient cultivation and the rude 

 husbandry in a field where the labourers are still few and 

 unskilled. In England, in the fourteenth century, the wheat 

 return varied from 8 to 12 bushels per acre, and even in the 

 sixteenth century, when husbandry had improved and lands 

 were dressed, the return is stated by Harrison, a contem- 

 porary writer, to have been from sixteen to twenty bushels. 

 What experience and science have done for England they 

 can do for other countries. As the rural population in Argen- 

 tina increases and the land rises in value more intelligent 

 cultivation will obtain, and the result will be a heavier return 

 from the soil. The improvement in that yield is more likely 

 to come by way of cultivation, of conservation of the soil 

 moisture, and of selection of seeds than by the use of 

 fertilisers. 



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