FARMING IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 802, 27 April 1910, Page 8

FARMING IN SOUTH AMERICA.

-.' -.'.'-■' OPENINGS I'OE TRADE. ''■ •■•tATB RESIDENT INTERVIEWED. _ Thero. is at present, resident in Wellington a gentleman who has spent no fewer than :t,weuty-three years travelling over r South "America , for different business houses.. This is Mr. Thomas M. O'Neill, who,' with his two brothers, left U'airoa, Hawke's liay, .in , I£SO, to, try his fortune' in the Argentine. Mr. O'Neill's brothers are now settled down as sheepfarmers, one in the, province of Buenos Ayres, and the other in Uruguay. Ho himself, after many years' experience as representative for the Massey-Harris, ■and , Jl'Cormaek Reaper and. Binder Companies, and -3ther concerns, returned with His wife soaVe7y.e«s;;t\g!Jstl>i;.take things quietly in New Zealand. In view of the Übvernment decisioucto-send an exhibit to the Argentine show, , a representative of Tub Dominion yesterday obtained from Mr. O'Neill his'opinion as to the prospects of doing trade with Argentina.

.'Mr. O'Neill considers that the ■ three most promising lines are.; binder-twine, seed-wheat, and ' apples. 'The Argentine is now-the second, largest wheat-growing country^in-the world,, and will soon be ,tW" la'rg'est" '"She imports nearly all her, binder-twino from North America, and some -years" 'ago' was" experimenting with a light wire paper binding, neither of which, hoVever, gave particularly satisfactory -results. Seed-wheat was another lino for. which .there might be a very, fair '-'opening. -There - was a big .enough demand.',for. it, and, if. New- Zea-laiiders'-could- i 'convimrß" ; tlie : ' , 'Argentine wheat-growers—that—they—cMi supply a satisfactqry; should ■'result. .'•ilr.'»''O'Neill h'as-;»;a)i intimate ■first-hand. *ac(iuaintance"Vitir the wheatgrowers of Argentina,' and 'used-'to , drive regularly through the wheat country n'n a , two-horse: American-• buggy, going- from 'homestead, to homestead. -.He says the growers' are keen on innovations and'improvements,.and are always on the lookout for new varieties' of .wheat. ; Finally, .there is the., apple jtrade. Argentina is a very poor ■ fruit-growing country, and there: is undoubtedly a splendid field for the-New; Zealand frujt-grower. to open up. ■ ■!Mr...O'Neill -says-.it has'ofteri puzzled him ■ to. know.-just why the New j Zealand direct liners continue'i'to .'call- at Monte \ r idco instead of at Buenos Ayres, whore there is splendid dock, accommodation, .and a' chance for'',passengers to have a look' at the biggest' city in the Southern Hemisphere: At Monte Video: there is no harbour, and the sea is so shallow that the steamers. have to lie miles off shore in. the roadstead. A Mixed Population..; ' : ■ Argentina's ten millions of population are a jiretty mixed'lot; "'Mr. O'Neill says the wheat growing , is mainly done by Russians, Austrian-Slavs, Swiss and latterly Italians.' The Italians form the biggest foreign and live mainly in , ' two large and. lawless, quarters ,pf Brfenos Ayres. They" are the-peons,' 6r ; labourers, and do all-.the.railway.'build-! .ing,;.'road work, arid. so : .on. From'• the. cities they are gradually working out into the .country'; 'As , the'cablo has'stated lately, there 'is a largo . Anarcliist, element amongst the Neapolitan Italians. They: have '.extraordinary" eecret ..societies, aid the members of the Society of the Devil can be seen parading the streets, of Buenos Aires at times with a large black flag at their headj bearing'on it a picture, of his satanio majesty. ■, , /

Mr. O'Neill says that he used to travel 1 over, the whole of. South .America, from. Patagonia rigli.Kup , to Mexico, absolutely unarmed. The natives are ..decent people, and' if one treats' tliem right there is. jitjtfe- trouble..-Most of—the matives go about armed. Tho''gauehos'of the sheep and.cattle camps are wild fellows.-• and very much resemble> the -Texan cowboys. They use no (logs ; aj;; all 1 , in "handling stock, but aro all'very good'hands with the lasso. The: posteros, or native boundary shepherds, generally, carry a. knife about eighteen inches long,'. which' they use for cutting up their food and cooking it. ...They .are .very, .quick ■; with.,, these; kriives when t'hey. are' "rowing"' amorig'st' themselves. Mr.. , dfKeiH'"on his travels occasionally slept in Huts" with' jth'e' po's-' teres, but as long as one behaved correctly and did not interfere in their.'dis-' , putes there was no danger of trouble with them. Personally he much,preferred even the native: gauchos to the. Nea- ~.■;,.;.;.; ~j;.; „.://;.;*.,.■:. J- .'■:- ■ Fighting in the Streets. . Asked whether he' had seen many re--•volutions-during his stay in the country, Mr; O'Neill said! lie. had .fought for the revolutionists in the" upheaval of 1890, '.}jfliea.'there-was six days' fighting in the .stree.ts.-idf.'Buenos. Ayres. The : Government was "hard up" at that time, and the discovery: was. made that the President, Senor Juarez' Celman, ; had' 16,000,000 dollars in gold deposited in the Bank of England. He. ■ was asked to hand this over, and refusodj sayine that it was.Ms private money made, from his estancias., They talked .matters over for about a year, 'and then started .fighting. one nad to .fight, on one side, or. the other, and those who-refused were shot down. There .was. six daysCof"fighting:, in" the streets.'.iThey'Svouldi'jfight for 'two or , -, three, hoars,, -arid tpn theVbugle- , would' sound? : At'.' tn'is-. figHHriS ceffsfed; , ; and ■ the soldicrsr satr.-.d0wn,,.! aiwL.to.qk ': out their pipes.' The ambulances came'and. took away the dead, and the Sisters of Charity came out from, the convents and looked after the wounded. . This over, the fightwould; start again for another ' two , or three hours. One evening a shell went into.the'dining-roonrpf'jthe Grand Hotel, and.killed two Eiiifishme'n who were: at dinner.. Tliis brought up a British manoVwar, and the generals were told , that ,theyvniustjstop'i"ir.';iwenJi'"fii'ur hours to allow all British subjects, who desired,.to leave the city. : During tho twenty-four hours things were talked over, and .Gel-, man' went-away to his estate, General Eoca becoming President. There had only'been' small revolutions in Argentina since then. Uruguay-was generally pretty lively.;" ' ..■'••'.:■ \ \ ,: ■; ■■■ ' General Eoca was , educated in Bngland,. and during.,tho.'Boej )Var he presented 'Mr. Minister, , with 800 splendid horses from one of his estancias for the use -of the troops in .South" Africai .'As- the-,leMing in,.'the. country was'strongly in''favour of 'the' Boers, this led to a great uproar, and the General was obliged to give out that' he had sold the horses.

An Irish.Aristocracy. ■ It is not generally known that.many of tho oldest and wealthiest families on the land in Argentina are of Irish extraction. . There are r the. Casey's," the M'Guircs, the Duggans/the Gaynors, the. Lynches, and niany others; Most of these are now, Jlr. O'Neill says, in \ tho second and'third generation, and in most cases they speak Spanish, many, a Casey or'STGuire not understanding':English at ail. I'eoliug against England is very keen among them. A man gets on very well in Argentina if ho gives out that'he is English, but better still if it becomes knon'n that he is.lrish. Some of the big holdings contain immense areas, and'the Scotch Lochiel Company in Patagonia holds as much as 101)0 squaro leagues of country. Patagonia was-.squatted on by British Falkland Island settlers, who lived rent free for maiiy years, and are now paying about sixpence an acre per annum for their, land. ■. • . While in Paraguay Mr. 0 Iseill visited "New , Australia," the Socialistic settlement founded in the early 'nineties by a 'colony of Quecnslanders. He found about twenty settlers remaining. They were in' bush country, where oranges grew wild, and. each had a clearing of 200 acres /or so. of them, seemed to be doing very well. The Government gave them as much land as they would clear.

New Reapers Every Year. ( Speaking again of the chnceroros, or wheat-growers, Jlr. O'Neill snid the first reapers and binders in the country were of British make; .Hornsby's being- the favourite; All the instructions with Hornsby's binders were, printed in-Eng-lish only, and when the Americans Sent in lighter machines with books of directions iu Spanish.: tho-zrowers toot, to

them, at onto. ."This is what we want," they said. The practice is to use the machine forone'scason only and then throw it away and buy a. now ouo next harvest. A wheat farm of 500 acres is a very small affair indeed, and the binders are worked hard, and are really pretty, well played out "'nt the end of a season. They are-left out.to rust in nil weathers.. The wheat-growers reckon that one good, harvest makes them independent for live years. They are badly troubled .with locusts, and armies of these, forty or fifty miles wide, como along clearing' everything.ljeforo them. The Government pays ten cent's a kilogramme lor locusts' eggs. ~ , ;■•■.•■'.■

The drawback to sheep farming is the scab, and sheep have to be dipped pretty well every month in the year. Numbers of Spanish and : French Bascos, from''the Pyrenees, have gone in for sheep farming in Argentina, and with the natives and the English ,aro the principal nationalities interested in the sheep and cattle industries. The wealthy natives and. the big English companies, Mr. O'Neill considers to be probably making more.money in the country than anyone else. 'It is the native sheep and cattle men who pay the long, prices- for. pedigree stock." .: ,

In Other Lands. . •. .. •:,'.■■ '.'After Argentina, the ■ most important British pastoral interests at present- existing in. South America are in guay." In' Chile-there is.a , fair amount;of cattle, farming, but there are.practically up-English-farmers.- English merchants are, plentiful enough, in Valparaiso.'-.; -In Peru and Bolivia '.there are a number-of English sheep properties, , -most of them running Lincolus. • .The' natives run •■'■ a degenerate merino on the high country, in both countries'. After' Argentina "and' Uruguay'the most important country,'so.far as the'British 1 past'oralist is con'cerned, is Venezuela. A British saladero or freezing -works has been erected there, and there are many English - sboep and cattle -farms in-the country. Colombia and Ecuador are; no good and much too lively and dangerous, for business. In Mexico the : Americans are everywhere, and there" are 1 few British farmers. British Guiana is a-poor barren place, "not .worth talking about,"-and like most of Brazil" and the remaining South American countries, its climate makes it unsuitable for - farming as we know it. There are plenty of tropical "plantations.