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Show a proportion which in relation to its population is only exceeded exceed-ed by that of certain regions of the South Pacific area. The cattle of the Western Hemisphere have, besides, been perfected nowadays for a more rapid reproduction and for a greater yield of meat. There is a marked tendency throughout Latin America to be self-sufficient particularly in the production ot foodstuffs. The development of livestock breeding in practically every country of the continent may lead in the near future to America's complete supremacy in the meat production of the world. tensifying the need for meat, cut off some of its sources of production produc-tion and thus stimulated its export ex-port by the cattle raising South American countries. The perfecting perfect-ing at that time of methods of conservation, further encouraged the production by South America of frozen meats for exportation. A new field was open to the cattle cat-tle raisers of the continent. In 1939 the second World War brought about a situation similar to that of 1914-18 and once more stimulated meat production in the Western Hemisphere. Today, the situation seems to be the following. follow-ing. Argentine, Paraguay and Uruguay produce enough meats to export, while Canada, Colombia, the United States, Honduras and Nicaragua satisfy their own home consumption. Other producers of meat in a minor scale are Peru, Chile, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala iand the Dominican Republic, and these with a number of other countries, coun-tries, are striving to intensify their own demands and also, even-, even-, tually, to become exporters. There are besides, great regions of South i America that could be excellent 1 for cattle raising in the near future. fu-ture. Among these are the "11a-noes," "11a-noes," large grassy plains of Venezuela Ven-ezuela and Colombia, which are believed by some to be South America's land of opportunity as far as cattle is concerned. Meat is one of the products whose interchange inter-change is occuring among the Latin nations of the continent. Panama, for instance, is importing meat from Cuba, and Venezuela from Uruguay. As a whole, the Americas are contributing a large percentage to the world's production of meat, KNOW YOUR Xj NEIGHBOR GRA.U. MEAT IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE Probably never before in history histo-ry have the people of the world been as "meat conscious" as they seem to be during this second World War. Now that a good juicy steak has become a thing one dreams about, now indeed, is the time to stop for a while and examine the meat production of the Americas, an industry important import-ant throughout the continent, especially es-pecially in the temperate zones. The first cattle seem to have been brought to America by Columbus Co-lumbus himself as early as 1493, at the time of his second voyage to the New World, while a quarter quar-ter of a century later Cortes brought the first horses to the Western Hemisphere. "The animals ani-mals brought by Columbus and Cortes were distributed mainly among the islands and on the mainland of North America. Then in 1535 the Spaniards brought in horses, cattle, and later a few sheep. The first cattle was probably proba-bly taken to Asuncion (Paraguay) (Paragu-ay) by a Portuguese. In 1569 foul thousand head of cattle were distributed dis-tributed along the regions of the Rio de la Plata." Let free on the Pampas and wild plains of southeastern south-eastern South America, these animals ani-mals reproduced and eventually grew into herds of wild cattle that were to be hunted principally by the "gauchos" or Argentine cowboys. During the first quarter of the 19th century quite a large contingent of men was regularly engaged in hunting cattle; although al-though these were lean, bony specimens, good only for the production pro-duction of hides and of tallow and jerked beef. "However the South American people, especially those of the Argentine, began to realize the importance of the cattle industry in-dustry because of their amiable climate cli-mate and great grassy plains. The Pampas are probably the greatest great-est grazing farms of all the world. The Argentines realized that cattle cat-tle to be profitable must be grown for meat as well as their hides and this required a better type of cattle. cat-tle. Consequently, about the year 1860, the importation of high-grade high-grade European cattle began in a small way." At the turn of the I century, cattle breeding in South America had become an important import-ant industry and in 1907 the value of livestock imported into Argein-tina Argein-tina alone was of more than two million dollars. Furthermore, pastures pas-tures were fenced and the proper herbage was grown to feed the animals in a scientific way. With the betterment of conditions for the rearing of cattle a number of large estates and plants to take care of the livestock business sprung up in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, four countries coun-tries which are today, together with Canada and the United States, the major producers of meat, hides, wool and dairy products pro-ducts of the Western Hemisphere. The first World War, while in- |