| Show = BUENOS AYRES i1 A land Where Horses are Given Away Nobody has though of this southern country Buenos Ayres as one from which there may spring a rival in wheat growing effort that may affect the market of the United States As a matter of fact the thing is accomplished accom-plished and from the district where I write wheat in grain and in flour ia already starting its remunerative journey from the pampas and has brought back its valuo from Brazil Chile and the Latin states of Europe Encouraged by these results the area of planting is increasing The acreage of the increase as a faot is pitiful and the amount of land under cultivation is to the Yen keemind contemptible but the possibilities of wheat are sweater than those Minnesota knew in 1860 or Dakota and her isis ler i territories t < njoy r today jc A climate that knee no froat aesoil virgin to the plow but + ennchedaby centuries of grasses blown into the land and fertilized by innumerable cattle whose movement over its area has known generations of death as well as the contribution of their life has made a land fit for the gardners spade Its generic character is of course alluvial but time beyond memory this land east of the Andes has known no course exceptthatpf man whose misuse of its offerings has brought forth a race Whose character until within ten years has been that of nonproducers hopeful from the efforts of every enterprise except ex-cept their own speculative upon any foreign energy and ready and anxious to enjoy the fruits of every industry so loug as they uould profit by either or hold the harvest reaped where they had not planted and garnered whence they had not sown Let me give some practical illustrations illustra-tions of values here 1 went to visit an estancia ranch of twelve leagues of land a league is nearly 6 000 acres I was met at the railway station on a cold winters morning July by a fourin hand The driver was a neon tho vehicle on Under which the two forward for-ward wheels turned easily and its body behind the seats was covered with the homedressed hides of horses Its seats were cushioned with padded horsehides the harnesses were raw horsehide the whip was braided horsehide and the pace was a run no trotting horse is known Over the pampas thirtytwo miles m 100 minutes the only skill of the coachmen called upon was to avoid the cattle wallows It was a pace for experience Arriving at the estancia tho horses were brought up standing the harness dragged off and the animals weresent adrift on the pampas I asked the superintendent of the farm what became of those horses I dont know he replied What are they worthAbout three nationals each A national is a dollar in the present depreciated condition of currency about57 cents That afternoon with a new four the superintendent and I were driving and came up with some peons skinning a dead but still steaming horse An inquiry revealed that it was one ot the four that galloped thirtytwo miles in the morning I knew the driving was too hard I said the horse was killed Why bless your innocent heart said the superintendent superinten-dent we shoot fifty or sixty horses or mares a week To morrow I will show you around up II And he did and they killed seven tyfour horses took their hides boiled down their fat stripped strip-ped the hair from their manes and tails and counted it profit and left the carcasses on the pampas for tho waiting scavenger of South America the condor con-dor What is it that Carlyle says about the stored up energy which constitutes a nations wealth There was a lot of energy released that day It must seem increditable to our Yankee and prairie farmers that horns could be so used but it is a calm fact that more than X00 000 were slaughtered in the Argentine Republic last year as shown by the raw hides sold in market Horses grow wild and worse horees it is impossible to conceive A horse is cheaper than a coatI mean a horse broken to ride or drive Beggars and in this country there are many ride from house to house to solicit alms and refuse = re-fuse a horso from an almoner from whom they export a richer gift for a horse is the cheapest thing he can give Judged by our ideas of economy this all seems mad extravagance They excuse ex-cuse it in ways not satisfactory to me for it is extravagance say what they will No distance of market can compensate com-pensate for the waste of pure strength easily realized upon in a land where a premium of 30 per capita is paid for every immigrant howsoever poor who comes to settle and work Bad as the horses are one of them is worth any four immigrants I saw of this class out of 10000 landing in Buenos Ayres in July American Agriculturalist for January Jan-uary |
