March 1596.] TEANSPOETATION OF WHEAT IN ARGENTINA. 413 



TRANSPORTATION OF WHEAT IN ARGENTINA. 



In an earlier number of this Journal* some information was 

 given relating to the conditions under which wheat is grown in 

 the Argentine Republic, particularly with reference to the cost 

 of production. It was shown that in the fertility of his soil 

 and in his comparatively small outlay for labour the Argentine 

 wheat-grower possessed advantages which had contributed in 

 no small degree to the successful development of the export 

 trade in wheat from the River Plate. Hitherto, one striking fea- 

 ture of this trade has been its rapid development, but its further 

 extension is, in the opinion of experts and others resident in the 

 country, dependent to some extent upon the provision of better 

 facilities for transport and storage. 



Mr. Peel,t in a report dated May 1895, pointed out that want 

 of capital was felt in the hindrance to the development of 

 railways, and in the absence of good roads facilitating access to 

 centres of production. He also quoted a statement by Mr. 

 Gastrell to the effect that it was a well-known fact that the 

 traffic in grain on many railways in the Republic had taxed 

 their capacity to the utmost, and that, for want of rolHng stock 

 as well as storage room, bags of grain were often lying on the 

 open ground insufficiently protected from the weather. 



But, apart from the question of the further development of 

 railways, Mr. Gastrell J is of opinion that better facilities and a 

 better management in the utilisation of railway stock, on the 

 perfect grain traffic system of the United States, would do much 

 to prevent congestion on the existing lines of rail in the busiest 

 season. 



It would seem that a serious drawback with which the 

 Argentine grain producers have to contend is the want of a 

 sufficient number of warehouses or elevators for the general 

 storage of grain. The production of wheat for export has 

 come to the front so recently and so suddenly that the 

 warehouses or galpones along the line of railway, which pre- 

 viously were equal to the calls upon them, are, in the wheat 

 season insufficient to meet the calls for grain awaiting the cars. 

 "When rolling stock is not ready, and there is storage room, the 

 railv/ay companies agree to receive and take care of the grain 

 for a limited number of days without charge, but in some seasons 

 considerable quantities of wheat are stated to have been ruined 

 by exposure at the railway stations. 



* See Vol. I., No. 2, p. 165. 



f Report on the Agricultural and Pastoral Condition and Prospects of the 

 Argentine Republic. Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series, No. 369, 



% Report for 1894 on the General and Financial Condition of the Argentioe 

 Republic. Foreign Office Annual Series, No. 1495. 



