Buenos Ayres, the lands for the most part are devoted to sheep pastures; beyond them again, the cattle establishments predominate, the advance of sheep farming gradually and steadily driving back the cattle to greater distances, and on to the coarser grasses. The latter eating down the coarser herbage, fit the land for the reception of sheep, and I have little doubt that, in due course, many tracts of country, at present unsuitable for sheep, will become equal to those now esteemed as the best.

The soil in the province of Buenos Ayres, parts of Entre-Rios, and Santa Fé, is a deep rich alluvium, that rests on a subsoil of siliceous clay, as the rule, without so much as a single stone or pebble. In the lower lands which have been more recently freed from surface-water by the rising of the land or the receding of the waters, the layer of vegetable loam is less deep, and the soil retains somewhat of the character of mud deposits, with more or less sand, clay, or shell lime. In the Banda Oriental and parts of Entre-Rios, a rich loam rests on rock formation, more or less near the surface, or on a subsoil of compact sandy shale and clay; rock crops out from the soil, and the débris of rock mingle with it. A considerable extent of woodland furnishes everywhere abundance of fuel and materials for 'pens' and hut building; but while it affords shelter, it diminishes the available space for grazing purposes.

IV.

The exports and the nature of the country sufficiently show that the chief industry of the Rio de la Plata is pastoral. Within a radius of a few miles or leagues round the cities or towns, the lands are occupied by agricultural farms, where grain, wheat, barley, and maize

are grown, as well as lucerne, for soiling and hay-making, with potatoes, pumpkins, and other items of agricultural produce. There are a few establishments in which this is combined with the breeding of fine stock and fine sheep-for ram-breeding of the Negretti and Rambouillet breeds, shorthorned cattle, and where English blood sires, Cleveland bays, and cart stallions are kept for breeding purposes. The land within the radius is all fenced in with wire fence or hedges of the ñapinday, a prickly plant of the mimosa order, closing its leaves at sundown and in rain. There are also large plantations of peaches, apricots, and nectarines sown partly for fruit, but chiefly for fagots, being cut for this purpose every third or fourth year. Other plantations are of paraiso and acacia, and supply posts for fencing purposes; there are also willow groves and Lombard poplars. In the Banda Oriental, Entre-Rios, and in the islands of the rivers, there are, besides these, woods of tala, espinilla, goiava, and an exceedingly hard wood known as ñandubay, valuable for fences, cattle pens (corrales), &c. This wood is so durable that posts which have stood in the soil for a hundred years have been taken up from the corrales perfectly sound. In the villas and gardens, in the outskirts of the cities, there are vineyards, orange groves, pomegranates, apple and pear trees in great variety. The vegetables and flowers are of the sorts cultivated in the flower-gardens, green-houses, and kitchen-gardens of England. Many of the hedges of gardens and villas are of the varieties of aloe, cactus, prickly pear, elder and blackberry.

Outside the agricultural farms of Buenos Ayres, the great sheep-walks almost monopolise the campo. The development of this interest has been rapid and most important during the past thirty years. Estancia after

estancia, district after district, has passed into the hands of the sheep farmer, or has been devoted to this purpose by the owners. The country is mainly indebted for this to British settlers, under whose auspices it has grown year by year into greater importance, while they have become some of the largest landowners in the country.

The value of sheep has increased tenfold within the past twenty years, and land has improved in value in the same ratio, though at first more slowly. I remember the time when flocks of sheep were offered and sold at 78 or 108 per head; and a few years prior to this, Creole sheep were of so little value that their carcases were cast into furnaces to serve as fuel.

The improvement in the sheep and their increased value are due to the introduction of Spanish Merino and Saxony breeds, with which the Creole and Pampa sheep were crossed and continually refined. The flocks, reduced in numbers and better tended, rapidly increased, the animals became more domesticated, the flesh as well as the wool improved, and the yield of grease was augmented.

So important was the improvement of the sheep in all points that, with the course of refining, the value year by year rose, until good cross-bred sheep reached the prices of 40% and 50% each, and the wool of the best flocks could be compared at no great disadvantage, in point of fineness, with the Merino; but in consequence of the dirty condition and large quantity of carretilla' or burr, its market value was in no way commensurate with its degree of fineness.

As may readily be supposed, with the rapid increase in numbers, equivalent to a compound interest of 25 to 35 per cent. per annum, and augmentation in value both of sheep and lands, considerable fortunes were made from

very small beginnings, and with little or no trouble or outlay in the management. In lieu of payment in cash to shepherds, the owners of the land and sheep freely gave flocks on halves, say half the increase and half the wool. These shepherds, many of them of the poorest classes of English and Irish immigrants, participating in the benefits of this rapid augmentation in value of the stock, throve with their employers; and on the expiration of their contracts, and the division of the increase, moved with their flocks on to lands rented at a mere nominal figure, and finally became purchasers of land, half a league or one or two square leagues in extent, and owners of many thousands of sheep.

This phase of sheep farm management in due course reached its climax, and, passing the interest or share given in lieu of wages, soon became much more than an equivalent to a good wage. The interest given was reduced in the new contracts to one-third, and then to one-fourth, and ultimately, according to the situation of the land and the quality of the sheep, to one-third and onefourth of the increase, without wool; and the majority now pay their shepherds' wages in money. From the first, many flock-masters, resident on their property, have pursued this latter course, and consequently have had a more rapid augmentation of wealth.

Sheep farming practice is again entering upon a new phase. The comparatively higher value of land, with the fact that the land within forty or sixty leagues of, and in one or more directions considerably more distant from, the city of Buenos Ayres, is fully stocked, is forcing the tide of sheep farming extension into other provinces and other States, into the Banda Oriental (or Uruguay), EntreRios, and Santa Fé, as well as to more distant parts of Buenos Ayres, where lands, if not quite equal to those of

the accredited sheep lands of the latter, are lower in price, more easily obtained, and are capable of being much improved by stocking. As moreover the maximum of improvement attainable, on the old system of management, and from the Saxon Merino cross, under such system, has been attained, the lands are found to bear a value fully up to that of the sheep and the yield of wool obtainable from it. The fleeces are very light, the wool short, fine, and deficient in strength, the result of slovenly breeding, management, and overstocking of the land. In view of these things I am convinced that the 'actual' position of sheep farming in the Rio de la Plata offers a brilliant opportunity to the pioneers of an improved system of management and breeding, with the object of producing a more robust animal, one of larger carcase, yielding much more meat and grease, a fleece double the weight, and wool as long again in staple, and at the same time more sound and elastic than the average of the present stock. The means to attain this end will be suggested in another part of this work.

ར.

Sheep estancias are of various extents, ranging from half a square league to four and five or more square leagues. There are combined cattle and sheep estancias of very much greater extent; many proprietors count from 20,000 to 100,000, and in some instances a still greater number, of sheep in their possessions.

An establishment of this class consists of an estancia house of more or less pretensions in size, round about which may be seen generally plantations of paraiso, acacia, poplar, willow, mulberry, and some few sturdy 'ombú