AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AMERICA 39 
forgotten. During the years when the cattlemen were in great 
distress, the dairymen continued to prosper. Cost of production 
of both beef cattle and dairy products is relatively low because of 
cheap land and labor, a fertile soil, and a mild climate. If, with the 
increase in population, dairy production should become general 
throughout the agricultural Provinces on anything like the scale 
already developed in a few counties of Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, 
the total production would exceed that of the United States. 
Horses 
The total number of horses in Argentina in 1914 was reported to 
be 8,324,000. Of this number, more than 6,000,000 were in the 5 
principal agricultural Provinces, as compared with 5,750,000 in the 
Corn Belt States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and 
Fig. 7. — Purebred Percheron at the Estancia Guanaco, Province of Buenos Aires, 1923. Much attention 
is given to the breeding of heavy horses— Percherons, Clydesdales, and Belgians— for draft purposes 
Nebraska in January, 1923. About 50 per cent of the Argentine 
horses are reported to be of pure or mixed breed, but this is probably 
an overestimate. Of the purebred animals, the heavy Percherons, 
Clydesdales, and Normans predominate. (See fig. 7.) There are 
some Hackneys for driving and Arabs for the saddle and polo. The 
native horses are similar to the Texas ponies and possess some 
excellent qualities, such as hardiness and great endurance, but they 
are small in size and weight. 
It is not likely that the number of horses in Argentina will increase, 
but rather that their number will decrease and their quality improve. 
Motor trucks are already invading the cities and in time will probably 
displace draft horses as in the United States. With the building of 
good roads, motor trucks will probably displace also the present sys- 
tem of hauling grain from the fields to the shipping stations in large 
wagons, the motive power of which is a team of 10 to 20 horses each. 
Good roads will also tend to increase the number of automobiles at 
the expense of saddle and driving horses. On the large estates, 
