BIG FARMS IN ARGENTINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 86, 4 January 1918, Page 8

BIG FARMS IN ARGENTINE

■ ■It'is when the traveller has made a " night's run from tho strictly mountain towns and wakens to look out of the " '■windows of his sleepiiig-car to behold the vast pampa of level and produc"tjv© plain unrolling before him on all .-sides that the real Argentina begins ■ to he tangible. It is like sailing on -■■an almost perfectly level sea that " bends away to tho horizon with naught " to obstruct the vision save here and" , there a clump of poplars, which signi......fies the_ ranch buildings of a hig ~ -..."ostanoia." ' One is struck with the V. absence of woods, but as one proceeds and studies the landscape he sees great herds of cattle, immense flocks of • sheep, and here and there gray patches which, on nearer view, are discovered "to he composed of Argentine ostriches. Then, there are this stretches of grain fields which seem to reach everywhere and have no boundaries—thousands of acres of wheat and corn. One has reached the country where farms are measured not :by the acres, hut by square'leagnesl If you ask the size of a farm, tlie answer mil often appall you, for these vast feudal "estancias" comprise all tho way from 12,000 to 200,000 acres, and agriculture is on a scale that would. seem fabulous even to most farmers.,

. "I apprehend that settlers will have . to get rid of their old ewes at the end of the season," said the: managing director of the Wellington Farmers' Meat Company to an "Age" representative. Boom would ,have to be. found for the surplus of young stock, he said. Intending exhibitors at tho Feilding Show, to bo held on February 5 and 6, are reminded' that entries close on January 18. ■ Schedule's have been widely distributed, and. contain sections for all classes of stock, home industries, fancy work, etc. Ring events will he, as usual, the most attractivo featuro, and this year the addition of a sheep dog trial on both days should prove a .welcome novelty. Sch'edules i may .be: obtained.from the office of this paper, or; from tho local A. and, P. secretary : The present has been an exceptionally good season for vegetables in Hamilton, owing to the frequent warm rains. Fruit crops, too, aro reported to ho - fairly heavy. 1 .. ■ The season's harvesting and shearing operations are now well under way in.the Matamata district, .Waikato, tho weather having been, up to the present, fairly favourable. Dairying is at its height, but in some quarters the opinion is expressed that a little more rain would be beneficial, as feed is getting rather dry, . Wholesale dairymen of the Christchurch district have resolved upon au increase in the wholesale price of milk, making it od. per gallon instead of Bd. Mr. H. Bliss, president of tho Dairymen's Association (in a statement to. a "Sun" reporter), said that . there were several causes which.justified. v an : .increase in the "wholesale price.- Principal among them was the fact that 9d. was the normal and natural price based upon the price received for milk at tho cheese factory, or, butter-fat supplied to the butter factory. There was no justification for asking dairymen supplying the city to take less than the recognised market price per gallon .for milk supplied for factory purposes. Other reasons for the increase were the high price of stock, which he anticipated' would shortly be higher still; also the fact that considerable quantities of hay had h'een destroyed by the rain. It is probable that an incroase in the retail price will follow.