OCR Text |
Show ARGENTINE LANDS. The Argentine republic has been disposing dis-posing of its public lands very rapidly in recent years. There is no system equivalent to the homestead law of the United States, tho government having devised a competitive auction system. Advertisement is made of tho fact that certain lands are. to be opened and thereafter anyone may bid at the stated time on any lot, the sire being restricted re-stricted within definite limits. During 1913 sales of public, land amounted to 10,363,000 acres, at a price of $128,653,000 gold. These figures, however, are the lowest for the past twelve years. In the decade 1904-13 there wore sold almost 2HS, 500,000 acres of public land, at a price of about $1,140,500 gold. The Argentine republic repub-lic has an area of approximately 1,000,-000,000 1,000,-000,000 square milos (640,000,000 acres). Therefore about half of the area of the country has been disposed of in the last ten years. There are ten territories in Argeutina, with an area of 29S,000,000 acres. The amount taken over by the nation tip to January 1, 1914, equals 90,000,000 acres, leaving 20S. 000,000 acres still at the disposal of the government. These territories correspond to the earlier territories of the United States and are under direct control of the central government. The states down there aro called provinces. These figures havo been sent out by the Pau-Amcrican union and no intimation inti-mation was given as to whether any attempt at-tempt was made to prevent vast tracts of land falling into th hands of speculators. spec-ulators. As many Americans and other foreigners have secured large holdings iob ranch purposes, it is probable there are few restrictions on land sales. It may be stated, however, that much of the plateau country is unsuitable for agricultiral purposes and its acquisition acquisi-tion by the ranchmen does not injuro the small farmer who seeks a moderate-j moderate-j sized tract for a home. |