Argentina from a British Point of View Part 1

Argentina From A British Point Of View.

by Various.

PREFACE.

In May last I was asked to read, towards the end of the year, a paper on Argentina, before the Royal Society of Arts. The task of compiling that paper was one of absorbing interest to me; and though I fully realise how inadequately I have dealt with so interesting a subject, I venture to think that the facts and figures which the paper contains may be of interest to some, at any rate, of the Shareholders of the Santa Fe Land Company. It is upon this supposition that it is published.

Whilst I was obtaining the latest information for the paper (which was read before the Royal Society of Arts on November 30th, 1910), several members of the staff of the Santa Fe Land Company aided me by writing some useful and interesting notes on subjects connected with Argentina, and also giving various experiences which they had undergone whilst resident there. I am indebted to the writers for many hints on life in Argentina, and as I think that others will find the reading of the notes as engaging as I did, they are now reproduced just as I received them, and incorporated with my own paper in a book of which they form by no means the least interesting part.

The final portion of the book--Leaves from a journal ent.i.tled "The Tacuru"--is written in a lighter vein. It describes a trip through some of the Northern lands of the Santa Fe Land Company, and it is included because, although frankly humorous, it contains much really useful information and many capital ill.u.s.trations, I should, however, mention that this journal was written by members of the expedition, and was originally intended solely for their own private edification and amus.e.m.e.nt; therefore all the happier phases of the trip are noted; but I can a.s.sure my English readers that the trip, well though it was planned, was not all luxury.

To the many who have helped me in this work I tender my most sincere thanks.

CAMPBELL P. OGILVIE.

LAWFORD PLACE, MANNINGTREE, ESs.e.x, _December, 1910_.

ARGENTINA FROM A BRITISH POINT OF VIEW.

Argentina, which does not profess to be a manufacturing country, exported in 1909 material grown on her own lands to the value of 79,000,000, and imported goods to the extent of 60,000,000. This fact arrests our attention, and forces us to recognise that there is a trade balance of nearly 20 millions sterling in her favour, and to realise the saving power of the country.

It is not mere curiosity which prompts us to ask: "Are these 79,000,000 worth of exports of any value to us? Do we consume any of them? Do we manufacture any of them? And do we send any of this same stuff back again after it has been dealt with by our British artisans?" It would be difficult to follow definitely any one article, but upon broad lines the questions are simple and can be easily answered. Amongst the agricultural exports we find wheat, oats, maize, linseed, and flour. The value placed upon these in 1908 amounted to 48,000,000, and England pays for and consumes nearly 42 per cent. of these exports. Other goods, such as frozen beef, chilled beef, mutton, pork, wool, and articles which may be justly grouped as the results of the cattle and sheep industry, amounted to no less a figure than 23,000,000. All these exports represent foodstuffs or other necessities of life, and are consumed by those nations which do not produce enough from their own soil to keep their teeming populations. Another export which is worthy of particular mention comes from the forests, viz., quebracho, which, in the form of logs and extract, was exported in 1908 to the value of 1,200,000. The value of material of all sorts sent from England to Argentina in 1908 was 16,938,872 (this figure includes such things as manufactured woollen goods, leather goods, oils, and paints), therefore it is clear that we have, and must continue to take, a practical and financial interest in the welfare and prosperity of Argentina.

New countries cannot get on without men willing and ready to exploit Nature's gifts, and, naturally, we look to the immigration returns when considering Argentina's progress. To give each year's return for the last 50 years would be wearisome, but, taking the average figures for ten-year periods from 1860 to 1909, we have the following interesting table. (The figures represent the balance of those left in the country after allowing for emigration):--

Yearly Average.

From 1860 to 1869 (inclusive) ... 15,044 " 1870 " 1879 " ... 29,462 " 1880 " 1889 " ... 84,586 " 1890 " 1899 " ... 43,618 " 1900 " 1909 " ... 100,998

Sixty-five per cent. of the immigrants are agricultural labourers, who soon find work in the country, and again add their quota to the increasing quant.i.ty and value of materials to be exported. Facing this page is a diagram of the Immigration Returns from 1857 to 1909.

Nature has been lavish in her gifts to Argentina, and man has taken great advantage of these gifts. My desire now is to show what has been done in the way of developing agriculture in this richly-endowed country during the last fifty years. One name which should never be forgotten in Argentina is that of William Wheelwright, whose entrance into active life in Buenos Aires was not particularly dignified; in 1826 he was shipwrecked at the mouth of the River Plate, and struggled on barefooted, hatless and starving to the small town of Quilmes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIAGRAM OF IMMIGRATION RETURNS.

NOTE:--IN THE YEARS 1888, 1889 & 1890 THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT a.s.sISTED Pa.s.sAGES.]

Mr. Wheelwright was an earnest and far-seeing man, and his knowledge of railways in the United States helped him to realise their great possibilities in Argentina; but, strange to say, upon his return to his native land he could not impress any of those men who afterwards became such great "Railway Kings" in the U.S.A. Failing to obtain capital for Argentine railway development in his own country, Wheelwright came to England, and interested Thomas Bra.s.sey, whose name was then a household word amongst railway pioneers. These two men a.s.sociated themselves with Messrs. Ogilvie & Wythes, forming themselves into the firm of Bra.s.sey, Ogilvie, Wythes & Wheelwright, whose first work was the building of a railway 17,480 kilometres long between Buenos Aires and Quilmes in 1863; afterwards they built the line from Rosario to Cordova, which is embodied to-day in the Central Argentine Railway. Other railways were projected, and this policy of progress and extension of the steel road still holds good in Argentina.

The year 1857 saw the first railway built, from Buenos Ayres to Flores, 5,879 kilometres long; in 1870 there were 457 miles of railroad; in 1880 the railways had increased their mileage to 1,572; in 1890 Argentina possessed 5,895 miles of railway, and in 1900 there were 10,352 miles.

The rapid increase in railway mileage during the last nine years is as follows:--

In 1901 there were 10,565 miles of railway.

" 1902 " " 10,868 " " "

" 1903 " " 11,500 " " "

" 1904 " " 12,140 " " "

" 1905 " " 12,370 " " "

" 1906 " " 12,850 " " "

" 1907 " " 13,829 " " "

" 1908 " " 14,825 " " "

" 1909 " " 15,937[A]" " "

12,000 of which are owned by English companies, representing a capital investment of 170,000,000.

In other words, for the last forty years Argentina has built railways at the rate of over a mile a day, and in 1907, 1908, and 1909 her average rate per day was nearly three miles. This means that owing to the extension of railways during this last year alone, over a million more acres of land could have been given up to the plough if suitable for the cultivation of corn.

When William Wheelwright first visited Argentina it was little more than an unknown land, whose inhabitants had no ambition, and no desire to acquire wealth--except at the expense of broken heads. There was a standard of wealth, but it lay in the number of cattle owned; land was of little value, save for feeding cattle, and therefore counted for naught, but cattle could be boiled down for tallow; bones and hides were also marketable commodities; the man, therefore, who possessed cattle possessed wealth.

The opening out of the country by railways soon changed the aspect of affairs. The man who possessed cattle was no longer considered the rich man; it was he who owned leagues of land upon which wheat could be grown who became the potentially rich man; he, by cutting up his land and renting it to the immigrants, who were beginning to flock in in an endless stream to the country, found that riches were being acc.u.mulated for him without much exertion on his part. He took a risk inasmuch as he received payment in kind only. Therefore, when the immigrants did well, so did he, and as many thousands of immigrants have become rich, it follows that the land proprietors have become immensely so. It was the railways which created this possibility, and endowed the country by rendering it practicable to grow corn where cattle only existed before, but many Argentines to-day forget what they owe to the railway pioneers; it is the railways, and the railways only, which render the splendid and yearly increasing exports possible.

In 1858 cattle formed 25 per cent. of the total wealth of Argentina, but in 1885 cattle only represented 18 per cent. of the total wealth, railways having made it possible during those thirty years to utilise lands for other purposes than cattle-feeding. Let it be clearly understood, the total value of cattle had not decreased; far from that, the cattle had increased in value during the above period to the extent of 48,000,000, and to-day cattle, sheep, horses, mules, pigs, goats and a.s.ses represent a value of nearly 130,000,000. The following table shows how great the improvement has been in Argentine animals:--

Per Head.

Cattle in 1885 were valued at an average of $13[B]

" 1908 " " " 32 Sheep in 1885 " " " 2 " 1908 " " " 4 Horses in 1885 " " " 11 1908 " " " 25

Notwithstanding these increased valuations per head, and the larger number of animals in the country, the value created by man's labour far outweighs the increased value of mere breeding animals.

Next to the railways the improvements in shipping have helped the development of Argentina; the shipping trade of Buenos Aires has increased at the rate of one million tons per annum for the past few years, and the entries into the port form an interesting and instructive table:

The following statement gives the total tonnage that pa.s.sed through the port of Buenos Aires from 1880 to 1909, and will more clearly show the increase and advance made in the last thirty years. These figures include both steamers and sailing-vessels, and local as well as foreign trade:--

Tons.

1880 ... 644,750 1881 ... 827,072 1882 ... 995,597 1883 ... 1,207,321 1884 ... 1,782,382 1885 ... 2,200,779 1886 ... 2,408,323 1887 ... 3,369,057 1888 ... 3,396,212 1889 ... 3,804,037 1890 ... 4,507,096 1891 ... 4,546,729 1892 ... 5,475,942 1893 ... 6,177,818 1894 ... 6,686,123 1895 ... 6,894,834 1896 ... 6,115,547 1897 ... 7,365,547 1898 ... 8,051,045 1899 ... 8,741,934 1900 ... 8,047,010 1901 ... 8,661,300 1902 ... 8,902,605 1903 ... 10,269,298 1904 ... 10,424,615 1905 ... 11,467,954 1906 ... 12,448,219 1907 ... 13,335,733 1908 ... 15,465,417 1909 ... 16,993,973

In 1897, out of the total number of steamers that entered Buenos Aires, viz., 901, with a tonnage of 2,342,391; 519, with a tonnage of 1,327,571, were British. Taking the year 1909 we find that 2,008 steamers and 137 sailing-vessels entered the port of Buenos Aires from foreign sh.o.r.es with a tonnage of 5,193,542, and 1,978 steamers and 129 sailing-vessels left the port for foreign sh.o.r.es with a tonnage of 5,174,114; out of these, British boats lead with 2,242 steamers and 37 sailing-vessels, or say 53-1/2 per cent. of the total. Germany comes next with 456 steamers and 2 sailing-vessels, or say 10-3/4 per cent, of the total. Italy with 307 steamers and 67 sailing-vessels is next, and then France with 264 steamers. The total number of steamers that entered and left the port from local and foreign ports is 13,485, with a tonnage of 14,481,526, and 20,264 sailing-vessels with 2,512,447 tons, which make up the amount of 16,993,973 tons, as shown above.

In the year 1884 the experiment of freezing beef, killed in Buenos Aires, and shipping it to Europe was first tried. That was successful, but an immense improvement was made when the process of chilling became the common means by which meat could be exported. The frozen beef trade in Argentina has had a wonderful development; it commenced in 1884, and the export of chilled meat has progressed steadily at the rate of 25,000 beeves yearly, until, in 1908, it reached the enormous quant.i.ty of 573,946 beeves, or 180,000 tons. Frozen mutton has remained comparatively steady, and has only increased by 38,000 tons in twenty-two years, or from 2,000,000 sheep frozen in 1886 to 3,297,667 in 1908, whilst "jerked beef," which was mostly sent to Cuba and Brazil, has fallen from 50,000 tons per annum to 6,651 tons. The value of frozen and preserved meats exported in 1908 was 5,233,948.

The value of live-stock in Argentina in 1908 was made up as follows:--

Cattle ... ... ... 82,000,000 Sheep ... ... ... 25,000,000 Horses ... ... ... 18,000,000 Mules ... ... ... 2,000,000 Pigs ... ... ... 1,368,000 Goats and a.s.ses ... 1,000,000

A few years ago it was common on an estancia feeding 50,000 or 60,000 cattle to find the household using canned Swiss milk. To-day 425,000 litres of milk are brought into the city of Buenos Aires each day for consumption, and no less than two tons of b.u.t.ter, one ton of cream, and three tons of cheese are used there daily. Argentina also exports b.u.t.ter. This trade has sprung up entirely within the last fourteen years, and in 1908 she exported 3,549 tons of b.u.t.ter, the value of which was 283,973.

Until 1876 Argentina imported wheat for home consumption; in that year, when for many years past agricultural labourers had been arriving at an average of 25,000 per annum, she began to export wheat with a modest shipment of 5,000 tons. Thirty years later the export had mounted up to 2,247,988 tons, and in 1908 the wheat exported amounted to 3,636,293 tons, and was valued at 25,768,520. Agricultural colonies had sprung up everywhere, and cattle became of second-rate importance; to-day the value of the exports of corn, which term includes wheat, barley, maize, oats, etc., is more than double that of cattle and cattle products. It is interesting to follow the evolution wrought by labour, intelligence, and capital in the prairie lands of Argentina. First, let us note the developments on those wonderful tracts of splendid prairie lands lying between the River Plate and the Andes: fifty years ago these lands were of little account, and only a few cattle were to be found roaming about them, but upon the advance of the railway they came under the plough, and, without much attention or care, produced wheat and maize. After a time improvements in the method of cultivation produced a better return, and to-day a great deal of attention is paid to the preparing of the land, and thought and care are given to the seed time, the growing, and the harvest. When it is found desirable to rest the land after crops of wheat and maize, etc., alfalfa is grown thereon. Alfalfa is one of the clover tribe, and has the peculiar property of attaching to itself those micro-organisms which are able to fix the nitrogen in the air and render it available for plant food. Every colonist knows the value of alfalfa for feeding his animals, but it is not every colonist who knows why this plant occupies such a high place amongst feeding stuffs. Alfalfa is easily grown, very strong when established, and, provided its roots can get to water, will go on growing for years. The _raison d'etre_ for growing alfalfa is for the feeding of cattle and preparing them for market, and for this purpose a league of alfalfa (6,177 acres metric measurement) will carry on an average 3,500 head. When grown for dry fodder it produces three or four crops per annum and a fair yield is from 6 to 8 tons per acre of dry alfalfa for each year. A ton of such hay is worth about $20 to $30, and after deducting expenses there is a clear return of about $14 per acre.

The figures supplied by one large company are interesting; they show that, on an average, cattle, when placed upon alfalfa lands, improve in value at the rate of $2.00 per head per month, so it is easy to place a value on its feeding properties. Thus, we will take a camp under alfalfa capable of carrying 10,000 head of cattle all the year round, where as the fattened animals are sold off an equal number is bought to replace them. Such a camp would bring in a clear profit of $200,000 per annum, and the property should be worth 175,000 sterling. An animal that has been kept all its life on rough camp, and, when too old for breeding, is placed for the first time on alfalfa lands, fattens extremely quickly, and the meat is tender and in quality compares favourably with any other beef. No business in Argentina of the same importance has shown such good returns as cattle breeding, and these results have been chiefly brought about by the introduction of alfalfa, and a knowledge of the life history of alfalfa is of the greatest importance to the cattle farmer. All cereal crops take from the soil mineral matter and nitrogen.

Therefore, after continuous cropping the land becomes exhausted and generally poorer; experience has taught us that rotation of crops is a necessity to alleviate the strain on the soil, and such an axiom has this become that in many cases English landlords insist that their leases shall contain a clause binding the tenants to grow certain stated crops in rotation.

This system is known in England as the four-course shift. Knowledge gained by successive generations of observant farmers has given us the key to what Nature had hitherto kept to herself, and to-day we know why the plan adopted by our forefathers was right, and why the rotation of crops was, and is, a necessity. Men of science are devoting their lives to the systematic study of Nature's hidden secrets, and by means of Agricultural Colleges, as well as private individual research, these discoveries are being given to mankind, and long before the soils of Argentina show any serious loss of nitrogen from continuous cropping, science will probably have established means of applying in a practical manner those methods already known of propagating the nitrogen-collecting bacteria which thrive on alfalfa, clover, peas, soya beans, and other leguminous plants. Almost every country is now devoting time, money, and energy to agricultural research work. In 1908 the Agricultural College at Ontario prepared no less than 474 packages of Legume Bacteria, and in 309 cases beneficial results followed from the application thereof to the soil; in 165 cases no improvements in the crops were noticed, this may, however, have been due to the want of knowledge of how to manipulate the bacteria, or to lack of experience in noting effects scientifically, but in any case the experiment must be considered successful when the results obtained were satisfactory in no less than 65 per cent. of the trials. No greater factor exists than the microscope in opening up and hunting out the secrets concealed in the very soil we are standing on.

If soils were composed of nothing but pure silica sand, nothing would ever grow; but in Nature we find that soils contain all sorts of mineral matter, and chief amongst these is lime.