AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AMERICA 67 
area or production of grain or other cultivated crops will require an 
additional supply of labor through immigration. The annual 
migration of laborers from southern Europe for the harvest period 
which was important a few years ago seems to have dwindled. In 
the larger cities labor is well organized but in the country it is wholly 
unorganized. 
Wages of Farm Labor 
Generally speaking, the wages of farm labor in Argentina are low. 
A minimum-wage law was passed which in actual practice either is not 
observed or the minimum wage prescribed is regarded as a maximum. 
The minimum for unskilled farm labor is 3 to 3 J^ pesos per day with- 
out board, which at the rate of exchange prevailing in 1924 was 
equivalent to about $1. A considerable portion of this minimum 
wage is accounted for by shelter, fuel, use of a horse, a garden, and 
other privileges and allowances, so that the cash wages are often 
very low. 
farm houses and buildings 
Three general types of houses are to be seen on the farms and 
ranches of Argentina : 
(1) Those of proprietors of the larger estates, (2) those of proprie- 
tors of the smaller ranches and farms and of tenants, and (3) those of 
the peons and farm laborers. 
The country houses of the best class on the larger estates are usually 
large, often palatial, always well and sometimes luxuriously furnished. 
Usually there is a separate dwelling for the manager, another for the 
cook and house servants, a separate kitchen, usually at some distance, 
an administrative-office building, a storeroom for grocery and 
other supplies, and separate quarters, kitchen, dining hall, and 
storeroom for the force of peons and laborers. A short distance 
away are the barns, usually frame, covered with sheet iron, for 
storing grain and farm machinery, or for housing the prize-breeding 
animals. The group of buildings, almost a small village in size, is 
surrounded by groves of tall trees, a flower garden, vegetable garden, 
a small orchard, and often extensive polo grounds. At some distance 
from the main group are usually one or more dwellings and grounds 
occupied by the various overseers. Usually a broad avenue lined 
with tall Lombardy poplars, willows, eucalyptus, or chinaberry trees 
leads from the principal entrance to the main group of buildings, often 
a mile or more in length. Rarely can any of the buildings be seen 
from the public road or railway because of the surrounding trees. 
Houses of the second class, occupied by small proprietors and 
tenants, are built on the same plan but are much smaller in size. The 
general plan is to build three rooms in a row east and west, with 
an L one room deep at each end on the south and cover the entire 
structure with a metal roof, often held in place with poles, pieces of 
concrete, or even earth. The floor may be of tile, brick, wood, or 
earth, and the walls may or may not be smoothed with cement, 
painted or unpainted. Near the central veranda or at either end of 
the building is the well and an oval outdoor oven made of brick, 
cement, or adobe in which the family baking is done. The better 
houses of this class have trees around them, the poorer none, but all 
have flowers. Most of them have a barn or shed for grain and 
machinery. 
