Argentina from a British Point of View Part 2

13,630,183[C] 71,103,487

---------------+-------------+ 13,630,183 71,103,487 ---------------+-------------+ 19.16% = 100% ---------------+-------------+

MEAT, including animals for food, and fresh, chilled, frozen and tinned, imported into and retained by the United Kingdom in 1908:

Per Cent.

Argentina supplied 9,285,545 or 19.07 U.S.A. " 18,705,548 " 38.41 Russia " 76,981 " 0.16 Canada " 4,084,113 " 8.38 Australia (including Tasmania) supplied 1,995,471 " 4.10 Other Colonies and Foreign Countries supplied[D] 14,556,955 " 29.88

48,704,613 " 100.00

The lesson shown here is one worthy of attention. We see that Argentina supplies England with one-fourth of her imported food, and U.S.A.

supplies nearly one-third. Therefore it behoves both England and Argentina to see that America does not so manipulate things that she acquires the control over our meat and food supplies.

Argentine authorities should not only exercise the law sanctioned February 4th, 1907, concerning the inspection of factories, but they should enforce greater care in seeing that all Argentine saladeros and packing-houses are manipulated with intense care, and cleanliness should be insisted upon; it would be a bad day for Argentina should ever such an outcry be raised against her saladeros as that which a few years ago was directed against the North American packing houses and for a time ruined the canning industry of the United States, and yet we find American methods being introduced into Argentina without let or hindrance. If our soldiers and sailors are to be fed upon canned meats, let those who are responsible for purchasing the food, at least see that the food is prepared under healthy and sanitary conditions.

The corn-growing industry of the Argentine Republic is an intensely interesting subject. Before railways and steamships brought the foreign producer into close compet.i.tion with our own farmers, Argentina did not produce enough grain to supply her home consumption, and cattle were bred only for their hides, tallow and bones. In the course of time, when steamers superseded sailing-ships and the world's carrying capacity thus became enormously increased, Argentina saw her opportunity of becoming a keen compet.i.tor in the food market. Corn-growing became a highly remunerative business, although much still remains to be learned concerning the handling of wheat. Both in the States and Canada grain is handled in a cheaper and more expeditious manner than in Argentina. An enormous amount of grain is dealt with in the Wheat Exchange of Winnipeg, but a further big impetus will be given to this industry when the wheat-fields of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are connected with a deep-sea port on Hudson Bay; this will be an accomplished fact in 1915, and as this route means a thousand miles less haulage by land, and eight hundred less by sea to the chief European ports than by any existing route, it is bound to become the popular one; the chief factor, however, in making it a useful wheat outlet is the established fact that Hudson Bay, although many miles north of Lake Superior, remains free from ice for a period of one month after Lake Superior is tightly frozen up.

Argentina may look forward to keen compet.i.tion with Canada and Siberia for many years to come; on the other hand, the U.S.A. will steadily show a smaller quant.i.ty of wheat available for exportation, and the following table throws some light upon the wheat position:--

Argentina and Uruguay have increased the area of their wheat-growing land brought under the plough in the last ten years by 124 per cent.

Canada in the last ten years by 120 per cent.

Russia in the last ten years by 27 per cent.

United States in the last ten years by 14 per cent.

No country in the world has shown such wonderful capabilities for growing linseed as the Argentine, and her average production for the following five-year periods show this expansion:--

Years. Production in Tons.

1894-1898 193,000 1899-1903 382,000 1904-1908 839,000

In ten years she increased her production by 335 per cent. In the same period India increased her production by 3.8 per cent., and North America by 105 per cent., whilst Russia was unable to keep up her supply.

The world's total linseed production for 1908 was made up as follows:--

Argentina produced 1,101,000 tons.

North America produced 694,000 tons.

Russia produced 470,000 tons.

India produced 360,000 tons.

Here again we find Argentina leading. Moreover, she exported nearly the whole of her production, whilst North America, Russia, and India exported less than half a million tons between them.

It is more than probable that by 1920 Argentina will be able to export, as the result of agricultural work, more than 100,000,000 worth of produce per annum. It is interesting to note that, as the present figures reveal, allowing for a population of 6,500,000 and an agricultural produce export of 48,335,432, each individual in Argentina has sent abroad, after producing enough from the land to keep himself, goods to the value of nearly 8.

The diagram facing this page shows what has been accomplished by Argentina in the last ten years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIAGRAM OF VALUE IN STERLING OF THE TOTAL EXPORTS OF ARGENTINA 1900-1909.]

In actual money value the exportation of wheat, linseed, oats, maize, other grain, flour, bran, and middlings is, in round figures, as follows:--

1900 15,485,000 1901 14,319,000 1902 13,634,000 1903 21,050,000 1904 30,065,000 1905 34,047,000 1906 31,530,000 1907 32,818,000 1908 48,335,000 1909 46,100,000

CATTLE.

The value derived from the cattle industry and its allied produce is of great importance to the Argentine Republic. The exports from this industry may be divided into four heads, namely:--

LIVE ANIMALS;

RAW PRODUCTS;

MANUFACTURED OR PARTLY MANUFACTURED MATERIAL AND BY-PRODUCTS.

Since the closing of English ports in 1901 to the importation of live cattle from Argentina, the trade in the export of live stock has fallen off considerably; the total value did not in 1908 amount to more than 568,966; Belgium took 65,224 sheep, Chili took 45,114 cattle and 14,394 sheep, Bolivia took 3,383 head of cattle and 10,676 sheep, and 16,000 a.s.ses and mules, while horses were imported into England, Africa, Portugal, Brazil, Uruguay, Chili, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

Exports of raw products, which include frozen and chilled beef and mutton, hides, sheepskins, wool, and such things as horsehair, tallow, jerked beef, etc., represented a value of 19,549,231 in 1908.

Manufactured or partly manufactured material, including prepared tallow, meat extracts, meat, b.u.t.ter, cheese, lard, dressed leather, etc., represented 2,454,760, whilst the by-products, including bones, dried blood, guano, waste fats, etc., were valued at 430,734. Thus, Argentina's total export from the cattle industry (after supplying her own needs) was over 23,000,000.

Argentina's live stock on hand when the last census was taken in May, 1908, was as follows:--

Cattle ... ... ... 29,116,625 Sheep ... ... ... 67,211,758 Horses ... ... ... 7,531,376 Mules, swine, goats, and a.s.ses 6,098,802

representing in value 129,369,628.

The favourite breed of cattle is the Shorthorn, and they comprise 84 per cent, of the cla.s.sified breeding cows; the Herefords only figure out as 6 per cent., but, undoubtedly, a more careful and complete cla.s.sification will lead to modifications in these figures, for at the present time no less than five and a-half million cows are returned as Criollo cattle, in other words, unimproved stock.

Not until the year 1885, when it became possible to send frozen meat to Europe, did estancieros pay serious attention to growing cattle for meat production, and now, with an ever-increasing quant.i.ty of land being placed under alfalfa, the Argentine Republic is fast becoming the leading factor in the production of meat to satisfy the world's consumption.

Cattle on the outside fringe of occupied lands are still very coa.r.s.e and rough, with a distinct strain of the Hereford about them; they are, however, a useful herd and most suitable for the districts they occupy, where they often have to undergo the hardships of shortage of pasture owing to drought, and little or no water, indeed, it is a marvel how these animals exist at times; and a.s.suredly no refined breed of cattle could live where the Criollos not only manage to thrive, but generally to return a satisfactory result to their owners. The cattle on ranches which are nearer to the seaports, manufacturing centres, or railway stations show distinct improvements. Greater care is bestowed upon them, and the main consideration is never lost sight of--it is the ambition of every estanciero to have his cattle graded up so that they are looked upon as "freezers," which means that they are good enough to be purchased by one or other of the refrigerating companies, who take nothing but the best.

In 1888 cattle running the northern camps (which then represented the extreme outlying posts) were only valued at $6 per head.

In 1890 the value had risen to $10 per head.

" 1900 " " " 15 "

" 1908 " " " 28 "

" 1910 " " " 40 "

The question of stock raising and the object to be obtained must rest with the owners: they must decide whether the land is to be utilised for fattening cattle or for breeding the high-cla.s.s animals for which there is an ever-ready market. To show the enormous value of animals and the high standard to which agricultural lands can be brought, mention must be made of two estancias near Buenos Aires, viz., those belonging to Messrs. Cobo and Messrs. Bell, where splendid stock is always to be found. To give some idea of the high price paid for first-cla.s.s pedigree animals, it may be mentioned that 3,800 was paid for a prize Durham bull which was sold to Argentina!

At the cattle show at Buenos Aires held in July, 1910, Herefords for killing realized from 850 to 1,000 per animal! These latter high prices were, however, evidently paid by the agents of Cold Storage Companies for advertising purposes. One representative explained that the freezing Companies desired to encourage breeders, and that his Company paid the high prices mentioned above so as to let the breeders know that they would always be paid high prices for first-cla.s.s cattle.

When we consider the really important position which Argentina takes as a food producer, it appears incredible that the English nation (business men and the general public alike) is so extremely ignorant, as a rule, of prevailing conditions. I do not refer to those who have invested their money in the many channels known to the River Plate circle. But men holding high official positions speak of our commercial interests in Argentina as "something between a hundred and a hundred and fifty millions," and then in a whispered side-speech indicate the dangers of revolution.

Often it is suggested that the chances of death from small-pox, yellow fever, and even from murder are a serious drawback to what might otherwise be a country possible to live in. It makes one very indignant to hear these statements from the lips of those who probably have never left their own country. Let me a.s.sure you they may be swept aside, and were it not for their frequent reiteration it would be unnecessary to say that there is not one grain of truth in these suggestions as applied to the state of things to-day.

Nearly one-fifth of the population of Argentina is centred in and around Buenos Aires. It is a city of 1,200,000 inhabitants, many of whom are millionaires; but at the same time there exists much poverty within its precincts--poverty caused in no small degree by the viciousness of the rich, but to a far greater extent by the rooted objection of certain cla.s.ses to go out to the camps where, during the harvest time at least, wages are high and labour is anxiously awaited.