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course, Monte Video is in Uruguay, and that company has a subsidy of £60,000 from the Uruguayan Government. I may tell you that these new works are exempt from all taxation for ten years, and the whole of the plant, material for buildings, and machinery, are admitted duty free. Now to answer your question about fattening-the sheep. The alfalfa country is spreading enormously. I have a letter from Mr. Livingstone Learmonth, who is an old New-Zealander, and he writes to tell me that the alfalfa country has been increased enormously, that the price of land could be doubled and wages increased 100 per cent., and yet they would have a large margin of profit with which to fight New Zealand. I refer, of course, to agricultural wages. Eeferring to a pamphlet I issued he writes: —" A point you did not note in your Argentine comments is that land might double in value and wages increase 100 per cent., and still I believe by increased facilities of market communication the Argentine could compete in the world's markets." He goes on to say in his letter, " Alas that it is so ! The majority of my interests are in Australia, the whole of my stake in life is in Australia." So that he is not speaking in a prejudiced way, as you will see. With reference to fattening sheep, Mr. John Cooke stated in a speech he made at the laying of the foundation-stone of his works that he was going in very largely for fattening lambs and cultivating on the New Zealand system —that is, with roots and grasses—but at the present time most of the artificial fattening is dependent upon this alfalfa country, which carries ten sheep to the acre pretty well all the year round. Practical sheep-farmers here may think lam making a strange statement when I say that the land will carry these sheep all the year round ; but during the winter months, when the frost kills the alfalfa down, an American barley grass takes its place in the same paddock, and, therefore, the sheep have green feed all the year round. My opinion is that Argentina will send next year, instead of three million sheep, five million and a half, and will go on increasing up to eight or nine million a year. They are now taking a census of the stock in Argentina, and it is generally expected that they will have 120,000,000 sheep and about 27,000,000 cattle. 23. Is it your opinion that this alfalfa, grazed in the ordinary way by sheep, will prove permanent ?—I can give you the experience of two Australian-owned stations I saw in the Argentine. They had three-fifths of the land down in alfalfa and two-fifths of the land in Pasta Dura, or the hard grass. The stock were never allowed to remain on alfalfa long enough to injure it permanently, being shifted from the alfalfa country to the Pasta Dura, and I have Mr. Learmonth's twenty-three years' experience to go on, and he says there was no end to the life of his alfalfa. He drove me out to a paddock which was planted 130 years ago by the Jesuits, where it is still growing. Of course, that land had not been stocked except by passing stock. He took me down the wells of his property, and I traced the alfalfa going down 30 ft., the roots reaching to the water. I traced the roots right down to the water. Ido not think the experience there shows that the alfalfa, if treated scientifically, dies out. 24. Sir W. R. Russell.] Can you tell us how many sheep he was running to the acre? —He was running on his own natural grasses—eleven leagues—about seventy-three thousand acres, and on that he had 10,000 Durham and Hereford cattle, and 18,000 Lincoln sheep. He was then putting threefifths of the country down in alfalfa, and he expected to carry ten sheep to the acre on the alfalfa country. 25. He had 18,000 Lincolns, and his alfalfa land carried ten to the acre? —18,000 sheep and 10,000 cattle. If it is of any use to you, I might tell you that he sows 16 lb. of alfalfa-seed to the acre. Of course that is only their second-class country. 26. Mr. Witheford.] Do they plough the ground ?—They just scratch the surface for about 4 in. 27. Mr. Buchanan.] What then, is the carrying-power of the best country ?—I will give you the experience on one station, where I went through the .books. There were 42,000 acres of land there, 180 miles from Buenos Ayres. Ten thousand acres were cultivated, with oats, wheat, and other crops, leaving 32,000 acres of natural grasses. I think all the year round the owner carries 40,000 Merino sheep, 20,500 head of cattle, and 1,200 horses. That land, which is the richest land I have seen, is valued at £7 an acre. That is to say, the owner values it at that. I have told a good many gentlemen about this, but they seemed to think I had been taken in, but after going over it some of them said that 1 was quite correct. 28. Do you know, yourself, of any farm carrying ten sheep to the acre on alfalfa ? —I know several in Australia, let alone Argentine. The general average in the Argentine is ten sheep to the acre on alfalfa land. 29. Would not the land get so foul carrying such a heavy stock that it would presently become unhealthy? —I should think that very probable, if they did not so often "spell" the land; but they have it cut up into available paddocks, so that sheep may be put into them for a few weeks and then taken out and put into other paddocks. They treat the land with great science, 30. Such land as that in Victoria would have to be ploughed, and planted with potatoes, and subsequently laid down in grass : would not the experience be the same in the Argentine?—l can give the experience for a year of one station which has 800,000 acres. The Curamalan Station, belonging to a big English company, has an area of 800,000 acres, and every three years 200,000 acres of this is put down in wheat by Eussians, who give a third of the proceeds to the stationowners. When that 200,000 acres has been worked for three years it is put down in English grasses, and as far as possible in alfalfa. In twelve years' time this land will be again under wheat. Every three years 200,000 acres is given out for cropping. They carry 158,000 Lincoln sheep; 36,000 polled Angus, Durhams, and Holstein cattle ; and 15,000 horses. 31. Is it your opinion that the number of lambs exported from the Argentine will be greatly increased ?—lt has increased already to this extent: that for the first six months of this year they sent 128,000 lambs to London as against 112,000 for the whole of last year's shipments.