256 
Advantages in Agricultural Production. 
The great difficulty is that of labour, which is often so 
scarce in the wheat districts that portions of the crop are lost 
because they cannot be harvested in due time. Italians form 
the great majority of immigrants, and they do well, while the 
Englishman of the labouring class, Mr. Gastrell says, “ is not a 
success in this country.” The bulk of the labour is performed 
by Italians, the natives being averse to agricultural pursuits. 
The cost of producing wheat depends upon whether it is 
done with hired labour or by the colonist and his family. In 
the former case it is put at about 21s. Qd. per acre, delivered at 
a local railway station in bags ; but Mr. Gastrell makes the cost, 
including transport (presumably to the coast), commission and 
brokerage, 32s. 6d. an acre. He adds that, at the price realised 
in 1893, namely, 10s. per 220 lb., there was a profit of at least 
11. per hectare, or 8s. an acre, and often much more. But in this 
reckoning he allows for a yield of 13 bushels an acre, which is 
much above the average. Allowing for this over-estimate, the 
profit must have been very small at the price in 1893, where 
hired labour was necessary, and if the extension of wheat grow- 
ing depended upon the operation of large farmers, who employ 
labourers, it would probably be slow. But, as will be shown 
presently, this is not the case. 
It is not much to the purpose to mention the extent of 
cultivated land in Argentina. Mr. Fliess, the statistician, puts 
it at nearly 240,000,000 acres ; but Mr. Gastrell believes this 
to be much too high. At all events, he says, wheat beyond a 
certain radius would not be profitable, and it is already grown 
300 miles from a railway. He goes on to say that it is highly 
improbable that any more than a small portion of the great area 
will be cultivated, as the stock-raising acreage, a large propor- 
tion of which is included in the total, is certain to be extended. 
But the Italians, he thinks, would probably go on growing 
wheat even at lower prices than those of 1893, as it is almost 
the only thing they understand ; and this brings us to an ad- 
vantage in cheap wheat production which must be taken into 
account. 
A writer in the Review of the River Plate makes the follow- 
ing significant remarks upon the subject under consideration : — 
The opening-up of the Argentine wheat fields appears to he mainly 
due to the labour of the Italian colonists. Except, perhaps, Chinamen, 
no people in the world, we are told, are such steady, hard workers as 
Italians, and no people are content with such mean living, spend so 
little, and are so keen to make money. Consequently an immense amount 
of hard work is bestowed upon wheat growing, and with no taste for spend- 
ing money at all equal to his thirst for making it, the chacarero puts all his 
profits into the purchase of land and machinery. It is useless to attempt any 
