Argentine Republic.

Northland Age, 13 September 1904, Page 3

Argentine Republic.

Australasia’s Chief C)mpetitor. V v The Argentine Bcpuhlic Imvin/r of late years come into competition with AustinWna as a producer, i r c intend publishing continuously an interesting uid exhaustive report by J. A. Kinsj'lla, NewZealand Government Dairy | Commissioner, of recent investigations in connection with agricultur.il dairying, and other commercial enterprises, in that vast and fertile country. Introduction. In making a general report on the agricultural and pastoral industries of that great, or, I may say, vast prairie country, the Argentine Republic, I feel as though I had had only a mere glimpse over her extensive lands, owned and controlled by a great Spanish race. First of all, I may point out that in order to permit of a thorough, or rather, a general and practical knowledge of this vast country' being obtained, it would be necessary for one to remain in the country at least a year and a half or two years; even then it would require almost constant travelling and very careful observations and enquiries in order to become acquainted with the details connected with farming, climates, etc. I therefore submit that it would not he reasonable to expect that I should write all of this brief report from actual observations during my stay in the republic. I have, however, travelled a great deal while there, and, in my opinion, no better means could be adopted of obtaining sound information than of practical observations throughout such a vast agricultural country. When one gets into the dairying and wheat districts and has personal chats and discussions with the people who are actually engaged on the land, he is, in my* opinion, in a position to get more reliable information than could he obtained from any other source. Although I found it difficult while in the country districts to carry on a conversation with the native Spanish people, owing to my not being acquainted with their language, y ? et I was able to obtain a good deal of practical information with regard to fanning in the country. Travelling by rail is rather expensive in the Argentine, and while I was fortunate in obtaining a few free passes over Bhc railways, my expenses, on the other Band, ran into a fairly large sum. I enBcavoured, how ever, as far as possible to B (i ep dow’n expenses —at least, unnecessary expenses. B Without going into history it may he B’ell for me to point out that the ArgenB°e Republic is a cosmopolitan country, B’hieh has lx*cn populated largely from Buropc- The country had in the earlier Bays the task of supplanting savagery by ▼iviHsation; in the end, however, the Ravage races had to give way to the Caucasian races, or otherwise be annihilitcd by them. The spirit which uni-, mated theXfitin races alter the, discovery' f by Columbus, led to toe formation'of many exploring parties , -ii (Spain. Amongst the first to explore lthe country now the Argentine Repuhlijr- whs Don Juan Diar de iSplis. He first struck a large river, which he named the “Sweet Sea,” or “ N a vara Dulse,*' which is now known as the great river Ll Plata or River Plate; After landing hljWus killed by the Red Indians. This t(*K place as far hack as 1015. Many oil hr explorers met wit h a similar fate, mill the greatG» neral San Martin finally srroprcfged the Indians, and it was only t liter, that tilings settled down on a sound bn'sis in the Aigentine Republic. In 1 what is known a* the Avenue do Mayo, in, front of the National Goyerfiinent Buildings in the City of Buenos Aires, v-tneds a fine statue of that great general, whose mime will always be rememberer by all Argentines. * The President of the Republic in office

at. ilie time of my visit v/os General Roca When I whs in Ihe Argentine they wen

on ino evo ui » new onit.wuu, twmui «uum be for the purpose of determining who would, he their next President. I was told that the old President under their laws cannot be re-elected by the people; it therefore follows that un entirely new President must he appointed by the voico; of the people. It was in-1880 that General Rooa was first elected President. After six years of office lie was followed by Don Miguel Juarez Colman, w’lio resigned in 1890. After a great revolution Dr. Carlos Pilegriui became President in 1892. Dr. Lewis Suenz Pena was elected President, after which, in 1890, Dr. Jose Euribum was appointed. In October of that year General Roca again became ' President. During my short stay in the ■ Argentine I heard so many nice things i from all quarters with reference to ? General Boca’s admirable qualities and ; his great administrative powers that I > have much pleasure in introducing his J name to the public of New Zealand. The i fact cannot he got away from that under » General Roea’s wise administration the t Argentine Republic hud gone ahead in i leaps and bounds, and lias, generally ) speaking, prospered. And by his detfcr- • mined purpose to maintain peace, the i impending w r ar with Chili has b|cn t averted, ami it may bo fairly said tAat 3 permanent peace has been cstahlishedlin , the country. u The Argentine is a protectionist coim- , try; its resources for conducting tpc Government ere largely raised from tbe Customs duties. In i 899 the imponts 6 into the country subject to duty were a 102,080,7J0d01. gold. This statement i may he wondered at, hut when I say t that the Argentine has over 120,000,000 - sheep and the United States has only |HFn conclusion on this point. Exports §*» Argentina for 1902 and the fiiit of] 1903 wcV 220,00(),000d<f. iHld. and imports lMk)0O,(MK)dol. goll, a gtand total iB-fom^ntradtJf *? uI ’WKSS&S&Bm Nearly

I am glad indeed to note that our Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Richard Seddon, has been one of the first to move in the direction of taxing foreign goods shipped into New Zealand, and for gaining a preference for some of that colonyls products which arc shipped to British markets. Dairying in the Argentine. In dealing with dairying in the Argentine Republic, I propose to 6peak more of the practical side of the question, for the reason that most New Zealanders interested in this industry have already become acquainted with the theoretical part of what the Argentine is doing in this branch of agriculture, through the Australasian agricultural papers. In the Argentine Republic only a very few years ago the daily industry had practically no existence. The milk of the millions of cow's which were in the country was utilised for no other purpose than for raising the calves. It must, however, be remembered that the Argentines have always been producers of meat and hides, and oven in the early days of the country they bred many good beef cattle.

At the present day wc find the milksupply business of many of the small towns, and even the -suhurbs of the large cities, such* as Buenos Aires, carried on in a very primitive fashion. The milk for city and town supply is in some cases brought in in cans on horseback, the cans being slung at each side of the horse, and the motion of the horse causes the milk to he churned, thereby producing a soft butter. This butter is collected or gathered and sold to the clients; and the milk, which can hardly be termed buttermilk, is also sold at a fair price, owing to the large percentage of fat still left in it. Many of the (native) Spanish people, strange to say, yet prefer this mushy soft butter to a good article produced in a butter-factory.

Another system of reaching the city milk-purchaser with what they term a pure milk is by driving the cows around the streets and milking them into small graduating measures or tin mugs in front of the houses. The cow is very often stopped a dozen times, or at least the process is carried out in front of a dozen purchasers’ premises. The calf must always he tied to the leg of the cow, otherwise the cow will not give down her milk—so the owner of the cow claims.

All this, however, is being gradually done away with, particularly in tlie large city of Buenos Aires. In the latter city you will now' find many fine places for drinking milk, milk shakes, etc. These places, as a rule, are painted white inside, and are kept scrupulously clean. The milk handled by the milk-shops is sent in from the large estancias (farms) in the country. They have also a few factories where milk is pasteurised and sterilised for city supply; and there is at the present time a large company being formed, and an enormous building is being erected, for the purpose of pasteurising and sterilizing milk, which wrill serve nearly the whole of the city of Buenos Aires. I was also informed that it is proposed to manufacture maternised milk. (To be Continued.J