The Sheep-Breeding Industry of Argentina. 165 
5,000 sheep. The paddocks consist of 3,000 to 5,000 acres, smaller 
paddocks being used for breeding purposes. 
Shearing commences the first week of October, before the grasses 
and burrs shell their seeds. The sheep are shorn in the grease, 
and the shearers are paid Is. to 10s. per 100, an average workman 
being able to clip forty to fifty sheep a day. After clipping, the stock 
are culled, and scab and other diseases receive treatment. In the case 
of Merinos, the tups should be with the flock by the end of October, 
in the case of long-wools by the middle of December. Lambing 
commences in March and in June respectively, June corresponding 
with December in our northern hemisphere. A month or so after 
lambing the sheep are ear- marked, docked, and castrated. During the 
winter the sheep lose condition, and fodder should be — but is not — 
provided ; pumpkins, lucerne, and other crops might be profitably 
grown for this purpose. 
Labour is cheap and plentiful. A general labourer gets 21. to 3/. 
a month, with board at special seasons, such as those of shearing, 
dipping for scab, &c. The day labourer gets 3s. to 4s. a day, with 
meals ; for very hard work 5s. to 6s. a day is paid. 
Twice a year fairs are held in most of the principal towns, where 
breeders can buy or dispose of stock. Land which sold at 45s. per 
acre in 1889 could not be sold for 15s. an acre in 1891, and is now 
depreciated below its real value. First-class land in the province of 
Buenos Aires, with fences, homestead, &c., is worth 30s. to 50s. an 
acre; second-class land, 20s. to 35s. ; third-class, 12s. to 25 s. ; out- 
side lands, 10s. down to Is. per acre. 
Title deeds convey the freehold of the land, but should be sub- 
mitted to a lawyer of position, and signed before a notary public : 
this is neither a troublesome nor an expensive transaction. Runs may 
also be rented at Is. 6 d. to 2s. Gd. an acre — about 6 to 8 per cent, 
on the value of the land. 
The diseases from which sheep suffer are scab, for which dipping 
is the only remedy (for the construction of pens and dipping troughs 
excellent plans are given in the book) ; foot-rot, of which a con- 
tagious and a non-contagious variety are recognised ; the throat- or 
lung- worm, which occasioned serious losses in 1892, and the remedies 
suggested for which are those in use in England. The fluke, or liver- 
rot parasite, which is not common, is found where pools of water are 
exposed to the sun. There are some weeds of a poisonous character, 
such as the romerillo, Baccharis cordifolia. Stock born on the land 
avoid it, but if it is eaten death ensues in twenty-four hours. If 
the plant is burnt, and the stock fumigated with it, they will not 
afterwards eat it. When cut up and macerated it makes an excel- 
lent blister, and it is also used as a diuretic. The chuchu, Nierem- 
bergia hippomanica, one of the Solanum family, is also poisonous, 
but it is fortunately scarce. Other species of the same family occa- 
sionally injure stock ; but it may be said of the provinces of the 
River Plate that they are as poor in noxious weeds as they are rich 
in all kinds of nutritious grasses. 
The first freezing companies started in 1883. There are now 
