DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 1895 AND 1908
More (+), less (-) in 1908
| PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES | SPECIES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CATTLE | SHEEP | HORSES | ||||
| Federal Capital and the Island of M. García | - | 11,538 | - | 7,072 | + | 7,367 |
| Buenos Aires | + | 2,605,339 | - | 18,025,479 | + | 844,568 |
| Santa Fé | + | 1,098,439 | - | 1,019,371 | + | 509,609 |
| Corrientes | + | 1,382,639 | + | 1,733,462 | + | 187,039 |
| Córdoba | + | 754,554 | - | 602,552 | + | 579,080 |
| San Luis | - | 98,925 | + | 314,439 | + | 67,290 |
| Tucumán | - | 23,058 | + | 25,134 | + | 57,151 |
| Entre Rios | + | 360,829 | + | 795,284 | + | 132,510 |
| Salta | + | 9,398 | + | 63,670 | + | 26,115 |
| Catamarca | - | 7,357 | + | 28,899 | + | 19,050 |
| Jujuy | - | 16,337 | - | 62,830 | + | 8,673 |
| Mendoza | + | 61,252 | + | 120,186 | + | 51,268 |
| La Rioja | + | 170,603 | + | 60,025 | + | 22,986 |
| Santiago del Estero | + | 37,350 | + | 316,978 | + | 96,668 |
| San Juan | + | 12,629 | + | 37,237 | + | 3,458 |
| Central Pampa | + | 65,517 | - | 486,100 | + | 52,534 |
| Rio Negro | + | 197,409 | + | 3,715,067 | + | 142,875 |
| Neuquen | + | 20,022 | + | 315,528 | + | 47,680 |
| Chubut | + | 305,051 | + | 2,076,322 | + | 152,925 |
| Santa Cruz | + | 14,778 | + | 2,018,302 | + | 28,524 |
| Fireland | + | 11,055 | + | 1,335,186 | + | 9,910 |
| Chaco | + | 181,327 | + | 2,318 | + | 13,163 |
| Misiones | + | 24,102 | + | 3,382 | + | 10,895 |
| Formosa | + | 192,300 | + | 20,044 | + | 13,058 |
| The Andes | + | 905 | + | 54,133 | + | 121 |
| Republic at large | + | 7,415,099 | - | 7,167,808 | + | 3,084,517 |
The result of the comparison is to show that in the provinces and territories of the Republic, the number of cattle has increased by 7,415,099 head, and that of horses by 3,084,517 head, whereas sheep have fallen off by 7,167,808.
The following are the figures for Cattle and Sheep respectively as calculated by Señor Emilio Lahitte, Director of the Division of Rural Economy and Statistics in the Argentine National Ministry of Agriculture, existing in each Province and Territory of that Republic on the 31st December, 1911.
| CATTLE | SHEEP | |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Capital | 14,338 | 1,222 |
| Province of Buenos Aires | 7,045,523 | 28,934,475 |
| ” Santa Fé | 4,055,624 | 1,612,799 |
| ” Córdoba | 2,251,744 | 2,753,773 |
| ” Entre Rios | 2,260,078 | 6,721,976 |
| ” Corrientes | 5,030,396 | 5,937,432 |
| ” San Luis | 861,831 | 1,565,326 |
| ” Santiago del Estero | 1,121,374 | 1,344,024 |
| ” Mendoza | 395,327 | 745,701 |
| ” San Juan | 174,835 | 191,752 |
| ” La Rioja | 600,582 | 234,587 |
| ” Catamarca | 382,108 | 230,201 |
| ” Tucumán | 653,458 | 234,591 |
| ” Salta | 892,248 | 630,681 |
| ” Jujuy | 172,387 | 1,128,321 |
| National Territory of Pampa Central | 399,460 | 5,751,856 |
| ” ” Misiones | 154,328 | 24,761 |
| ” ” Formosa | 359,139 | 46,397 |
| ” ” Chaco | 562,412 | 25,052 |
| ” ” Los Andes | 2,057 | 108,523 |
| ” ” Rio Negro | 379,312 | 8,476,993 |
| ” ” Neuquen | 295,770 | 1,099,161 |
| ” ” Chubut | 651,511 | 5,091,132 |
| ” ” Santa Cruz | 55,442 | 4,946,677 |
| ” ” Tierra del Fuego | 14,726 | 2,564,073 |
| ” ” Isla Martín García | 218 | — |
| Totals | 28,786,168 | 80,401,486 |
The 1908 Census showed that more than one-fourth of the whole cattle of the Republic were Durhams, rather less than one-sixth Herefords and the remainder made up of very much smaller quantities of Polled Angus, Dutch, Red Polled, Jerseys, Flemish and Swiss, their numerical importance being according to the order in which they are here stated, from a total of 125,829 Polled Angus to 3401 Swiss.
As has been said, Lincolns are still in most favour among sheep, followed by Romney Marsh and other long-wool breeds, Shropshire, Hampshire and Oxford Downs, Southdowns and Rambouillets and Merinos.
The reason for the great preference shown for Durhams is their reputation for combined meat-carrying and milking qualities, in which latter Herefords are relatively deficient. The dairy industries are already developing on an important scale.
There are practically no parts of the River Plate Territories except their forests, mountains and certain as yet unirrigated tracts, such as the Valley of the Rio Negro, which are not naturally adapted to cattle or sheep raising, or both, and at present Live Stock is to be found in almost exclusive occupation of close on 96,000,000 hectares out of the calculated total of 300 million hectares of cultivable land in the Argentine Republic. These figures are taken from the 1908 Argentine Census, above referred to.
The parallel figures for Uruguay are not available in such exact form of statement, but it may be taken that there are very few parts of that country in which cattle or sheep or both are not found.
Diseases of live stock are, as has been said, very conspicuous by their relative total absence in both Republics, and farmers in both Argentina and Uruguay are very sore about the sustained attitude of the British Government which refuses to permit the entrance of River Plate live stock on the hoof into British ports. The farmers are convinced that this refusal is due to the influence of British breeders who, while thus preventing what would otherwise be a serious menace to their own industry, yet benefit by the South American acceptance of very high priced animals imported from Great Britain for stud purposes. The weak point of this argument is, of course, that such importation of prize animals is in no way authoritatively enforced on the Argentine or Uruguayan, his obligation to purchase such animals arising only from his necessity to do so in his own best interests. The danger on his side arises from the possibility of latent tuberculosis and other disease, but this he now guards very effectually against, often at much pecuniary loss to himself, by severe tests carried out by competent veterinary surgeons on all imported animals and the unhesitating sacrifice of any found to be infected.
The present writer is inclined to venture the opinion that the British Government might rely with safety on the certificates of Argentine and Uruguayan Government experts of the immunity of all cattle and sheep leaving either Republic on the hoof. It does, in effect, accept such certificates in regard to the condition of frozen or chilled carcases; and, morality apart, it may safely be taken that every Argentine and Uruguayan interested is much too fully aware of the importance to himself individually of the countries’ export trade to risk the slightest laxity in connection with the sure ascertainment of perfect immunity from disease or contagion of all animals shipped from his Ports.
As this matter now stands, the British authorities refuse to permit the importation of live cattle or sheep until such time as the Argentine or Uruguayan Governments can give assurance of the total absence of disease in every part of their Republics.
It can easily be understood that this practically postpones such permission to the Millennium, since it is most highly improbable that the whole of such vast areas of pasturage and the millions of head of live stock in Argentina and Uruguay should ever be without one beast affected in more or less degree by any contagious disease. One day, probably (before the Millennium), other counsels will prevail with the British Government and the whole people of Great Britain, as well as Argentine and Uruguayan estancieros benefit by the removal of the present comprehensive prohibition.
For his stock, the Argentine and Uruguayan farmer does not fear disease, that he and his Governments can and do very efficiently guard against, but he does fear drought which he yet has only inadequate means to combat.
The streams of the huge Pampean flat are few and far between, and are apt to dry up in exceptionally dry seasons. Almost everywhere now the sky-line is dotted with corrugated-iron windmills which draw water from surface or artesian wells. But vast and costly irrigation (and drainage) works are needed before the whole available pasturage of the two Republics can defy the recurrence of times of drought which sometimes much more than decimate the live stock of enormous districts. Uruguay is, however, infinitely better provided with running rivers and streams than Argentina.
It was a long time before the native Argentine small farmer could be got to see the real economy of outlay on artesian wells and still in the more illiterate outlying Provinces are to be found men as yet unconvinced in that regard.
One of the agricultural instructors which the Argentine Government keeps travelling all over the country to give advice and instruction to farmers told the present writer not so very long ago that he had tried very hard but without success to persuade a man in a remote corner of Argentina, whose stock was daily dying of drought, to sink at least one artesian well on his property, and even offered to erect a windmill for him free of all cost except that of the actual mill.
At last, one evening, the farmer consented to this proposal, but the following morning brought a cloudy sky. Pointing dramatically to this he said, “Why should I sink wells? See! Rain is coming.” After that, my friend, the expert, gave the matter up in disgust. It was of no use telling the farmer that drought might come again. Sufficient for the day had been the evil thereof; and, as for future troubles, why meet them half-way?
Uruguay is relatively very rich in sheep, which thrive well on her undulating lands, and exports wool to the annual value of well over £4,000,000.
The value of Argentine annual wool exports now totals over £9,000,000.
The real commencement of the pastoral as well as the agricultural industries of the River Plate in systematized form was the introduction of fences by a landowner named Olivera, in 1838. As may be conjectured, the erection of boundaries where none had ever been before, on properties the titles to and limits of which were of the vaguest description, mostly partook of the nature of an arbitrary proceeding. So evidently thought Manuel Rozas, the tyrant; who summarily prevented Olivera from continuing the fencing the latter had begun on his estancia “Los Remedios,” although Olivera’s new boundaries were but ditches crowned with quick-set hedges of “Añapinday” (Acacias affinis).
After the death of Rozas, however, in 1844, an English estanciero, Richard Newton, first employed iron wire for some of the enclosures of his property; and, later, another landowner, named Halbach, completely enclosed the whole of his estancia.
The founder of the Argentine Rural Society, Dr. Eduardo Olivera, says in one of his agricultural essays:—
To these three men (Olivera, Newton and Halbach) the Republic owes the transformation of its pastoral and agricultural industries.
It was only after the enclosing of lands that refining of stock became possible. Previously, a stock-owner was always subject to invasion by stray animals (often in large numbers) belonging to his neighbours.
Thus, as we have seen, the first step, the introduction of wire fencing, towards the present development of the Live Stock industry of the River Plate was initiated by an Englishman, and it was another Englishman, Mr. John Miller, who, in 1848, imported from England, for a Mr. White, the owner of the estancia “La Campana,” Tarquin, the first shorthorn bull ever seen on the River Plate.
Therefore the River Plate Territories really owe their pastoral development as well as their railways to the Anglo-Saxon race.
Some ten years later it became the fashion to import stallions of the carriage and riding kinds; it not being foreseen that the heavier breeds would also prove useful.
Then came the turn of sheep-breeding; first from imported Merinos. Later, Rambouillets were introduced and a little later again the Lincoln began to assert its right to the predominance it has since attained.
In 1866 the Argentine Rural Society was founded by a few leading estancieros. Still a private society, its admirable and constantly progressive efforts, usually crowned with success, have given it a status which is practically official.
The Society has a Registration Office which keeps authoritative Herd and Flock Books in which are entered the pedigrees of all the pure-breed cattle, sheep and horses in the country whose owners have applied for such registration; except thoroughbred horses and merino sheep, the breeders of which last have not yet arrived at the definition of the purity of that class of sheep. The walls of this Office are lined with the Herd and Flock Books of the Breeding Societies of Great Britain and her Colonies, and, as Mr. Herbert Gibson, himself a prominent member of the Society, tells us, “there is not in the whole world an analogous office which covers so diverse and numerous a registration.”
The latest (1908) official Argentine live stock Census gives the following tables of, respectively, the importation of pedigree bulls and cows and pedigree rams and ewes, from 1880 to 1907.