Marcli 1896. J TBANSPORTATION OF WHEAT IN ARGENTINA. 415 



portion of the wheat product, however, is shipped from Rosario, 

 that being the most convenient port for nearly all the wheat- 

 growing regions of the province of Santa Fe ; and Buenos Ayres 

 comes next. 



The principal grain-carrying railways of the province of 

 Buenos Ayres are the Buenos Ayres Southern Railway and the 

 Buenos Ayres Western Railway. In order to ascertain the 

 average charge for the conveyance of a ton of wheat on each of 

 these railways, Mr. Baker has divided the sum of the rates by 

 the number of stations. In this way he obtains 9s. as the 

 average rate oa a ton of wheat on the Western road, and 

 13s. 2c?. as the average rate on the Southern road, from the 

 station to the port of Buenos Ayres, and the average of these 

 two rates w^ould be about lis. This includes all the expenses 

 of discharge, with six days' free storage on the Western road 

 and twelve days' free storage on the Southern road. 



Mr. William Goodwin, an authorised grain inspector of the 

 River Plate, taking the average of the railway carriage of 

 wheat to Rosario, estimates the cost of transporting a ton of 

 wheat from the farm, not including warehouse charges, at 

 7 dollars per ton Argentine paper currency, equal to about 

 8s. 2d. He says : " There is considerable competition among 

 the railways in Santa Fe, and the rates charged are not 

 much higher than in the United States, but, in any case, railway 

 freight is a very small proportion of the cost of the wheat 

 exported, because the average distance from station to seaboard 

 is about 100 miles, as compared with at least 1,000 miles in 

 the United States,"* 



It appears that there are no structures in the Argentine 

 Republic similar to what are known as elevators in the United 

 States. The Southern Railway Company has some such building 

 at the "Boca port," but it does not possess the facilities for 

 receiving and delivering grain which are considered so essential 

 in the United States. The wheat deposits are simply ware- 

 houses, called horracas or gal'pones, without any mechanical 

 appliances. The railways, at many of their stations in the 

 interior, in order to meet the increasing crops, have built cheap 

 warehouses, which have considerable capacity, and both at 

 Buenos Ayres and at Rosario there are galjoones which will 

 store large quantities. 



The most important structure for the storage of the produce 

 of the country is the Central Market of Buenos Ayres, Mr. 

 Baker believes this to be one of the largest covered buildings 

 in the world. It is located on the south bank of the Riachulo, 

 a little river which has been dredged and walled with wharves, 

 and forms what is called the " Boca port." The main building 

 consists of nine structures, covering 12 acres of ground, while 

 mule roads, railway approaches, and receiving and discharging 



* Wheat Growing in the Argentine Republic, by Wm. Goodwin. The Northern *. 

 Publishing Co., Lim., Liverpool. 



O 90410. B 



