60 BULLETIN 1409, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 
and markets, as in the United States. Good trucking land near 
cities, irrigated land planted to bearing vineyards in Mendoza and 
San Juan, and irrigated land planted to sugar cane or citrus fruits in 
Tucnman, Salta, or Jujuy is priced from $250 to $750 per acre; 
good alfalfa and grain land is priced from $40 to $100 per acre, 
depending on location and improvements; clear land suitable for 
cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, and citrus fruits in northern Argentina 
is priced from $10 to $100 per acre, according to improvements and 
proximity to shipping station or port. 
Undeveloped land remote from transportation and shipping facil- 
ities, land covered with unmerchantable trees or bushes, land subject 
to inundations, swampy, or in a semiarid section without irrigation, 
and inaccessible land, either has no price or only a nominal price. 
Public Land 
Public lands of Argentina are situated in the Government Terri- 
tories, especially in Misiones, Chaco, and Formosa, at a consider- 
able distance from the cereal region and centers of population. Most 
of the desirable land along the rivers and railroads in this region has 
already been acquired by private owners and is generally held in 
large tracts. About 50 per cent of the public land has been surveyed 
and is open to settlement. The land law of the Republic provides 
that the public lands can be leased in limited areas by individuals 
for either agricultural or livestock production at an annual rental 
to be fixed by the National Department of Agriculture; also that 
the lands can be homesteaded, the requirements being that the 
settler shall reside on the land for a certain period, make certain 
improvements annually, and pay a certain price per acre to be fixed 
by the National Department of Agriculture. 
Subdivision of Estates 
Visitors from the United States and European countries are sur- 
prised to see almost on the outskirts of the capital city and other 
large cities and towns immense areas of virgin land untouched by 
the plow and utilized only for grazing purposes. These vacant 
spaces belong to the large estates, the owners of which do not care 
to subdivide or sell their holdings, partly because the average income 
derived from livestock on the rich pastures is ample, partly because 
they know that the land is steadily increasing in value, and partly 
from a feeling of family pride. 
This is a serious problem in Argentina because unless it is made 
easy for immigrants from Europe to satisfy their land hunger and their 
desire to become independent proprietors, the overgrown cities will 
continue to increase in size, the vacant spaces in the country will 
remain uncultivated and relatively unproductive, and further immi- 
gration will be discouraged. 
For more than half a century the statesmen of Argentina have 
discussed the wisdom of devising some way of limiting the size of 
estates or splitting up the larger holdings in order that some of the 
land might be subdivided, colonized, and brought under cultivation. 
So far, however, no decisive action has been taken, probably because 
of the unwillingness of proprietors to take the initiative in subdividing 
