Sept. 1896.] CULTIVATION OF CEREALS IN ARGENTINA. 



143 



portion of bis crops sown late, he can as a rule reckon witb 

 certainty on a good harvest from the earlier sown seed, which 

 will have received sufficient moisture in the autumn. 



Owing also to the mildness of the climate, cattle can be kept 

 in the open air all the year round, and the farmer is thus spared 

 the outlay required in Europe for the erection of stalls. Sheds 

 are sometimes erected for imported pedigree animals and now 

 and again for milch cows, but never for ordinary draught 

 animals, whether horses, mules, or oxen. Only the province of 

 Santa Fe, . however, enjoys this advantage to the fullest extent, 

 since in Cordoba, at all events in the parts lying about the 

 64th degree of west longitude, the fodder becomes somewhat 

 scanty in years of long-continued drought. But by far the 

 greater number of Argentine farmers are said to be in the 

 fortunate position of having to take practically no trouble 

 with their stock, beyond paying the rent for the pasture. 



Even more favourable than the climate for field cultivation is 

 the soil of Santa Fe and Cordoba. The whole region is alluvial 

 land, formed by the disintegrated fragments washed away from 

 the granite mountains which range, under the name of Sierra de 

 Cordoba, along the west of that province from north to south. 

 In a treatise by Dr. A. Doring there are three analyses of soils 

 of this district, which exhibit a remarkable richness in potash 

 and phosphoric acid. It is this richness of the " pampas " soil 

 in mineral plant foods which enables the farmer year after year 

 to cultivate wheat on the same field without the application 

 of manure, and to this is to be attributed the fact that, on 

 the oldest farms, the fields, in spite of 40 years uninterrupted 

 wheat cultivation, still show the same capacity of production 

 as at the commencement of their cultivation. This soil is stated 

 to be everywhere sufficiently deep for growing wheat ; it is. 

 rarely less than 12 inches, but often 30 inches and more; it 

 is also remarkably free from large stones, a further and not 

 unimportant advantage, which has particularly facilitated the 

 extended use of agricultural machinery. 



Of greater importance, however, is the generally level nature 

 of the surface, which renders work with implements and machines 

 as light as possible, and allows the easy transport of these as well 

 as of the produce of the harvest. 



The subsoil in the wheat region is said to retain water at a 

 depth below the surface which renders digging for springs in 

 most cases an easy matter. Cordoba seems in this respect even 

 more favoured than Santa Fe ; since in the former province 

 water is generally at a depth of from 20 feet to 26 feet — often, 

 however, 10 to 13 feet; while in Santa Fe', according to official 

 information, it is found at 23 feet to 56 feet below the surface. 



As regards the preliminary expenses of cultivation, the cost 

 of breaking up the land is insignificant, as the pampas is 

 covered with low grasses — at the most 39 inches high — so that 

 ploughing can be started on the very first day, and no roads 

 have to be built. The rapidity with which agriculture has 



