In the department of General Conesa, 11,085 acres, facing the Bay of São Borombon, and 23 miles east from San Dolores, found a buyer at an average price of £1, 3s. 4d. per acre. In the department of Coronel Pringles, the establishment known as El Bombero, situated some 19 miles to the west of Tres Arroyes, divided into thirty-one lots of from 370 to 4940 acres, was sold at prices running from £2, 1s. 11⁄2d. to £4, 2s.
Among these sales of 1908 which attracted most attention were those transacted in the Province of Buenos Ayres. These included a tract at Exaltacion de la Cruz of an area of 914 acres, near the railway station of Cardales, which, sold in small lots of from 58 to 180 acres, obtained an average price per acre of £29.6 per acre. At Lomas de Zamora the land of the establishment “Santa Ines” were sold to the Sansinena Company for £13, 3s. 6d. per acre. In the department of Azul, a meadow known as “La Vanguardia,” of an area of 2080 acres, 11 miles from the town of Azul, found a buyer at £7, 16s, per acre. The San Miguel estate, near the Manzanares railway station, subdivided into thirty-six lots, was sold at an average price of £10, 5s. per acre. On the 19th of August 1908, in the same department, 741 acres fetched a price of £12, 9s. 2d. per acre. At General Belgrano, less than 2 miles from the railway station, 3294 acres, divided into five lots, were sold at prices varying from £8, 11s. to £10, 13s. 10d. A tract of 499 acres about 1000 yards from Jeppener Station, in the department of Brandzen, was sold at the rate of £12, 5s. 9d. Finally, at Burzaco, at a distance of 2500 yards from the station, 494
acres of land attained the fabulous figure of £42, 15s. per acre.
These are high prices in comparison with those ruling formerly, and at present they are firmly maintained.
The prices of lands suitable for agriculture vary greatly, according to their distance from the great city of Buenos Ayres or the port of Bahia Blanca, and their proximity to a railway station; accordingly as they have water near the surface, and are thus adapted to the growth of lucerne; and according to the terms of payment granted by the vendors. There are, of course, other factors as well.
Among many other examples, we will cite the 588,050 acres of land at Curumalan, ten hours from Buenos Ayres, the property of a syndicate which bought them in 1903 from Messrs Baring Bros, of London, at a price of £807,575. Up to July the 1st, 1905, this company had sold more than 247,000 acres of land directly to agriculturalists—Russian for the most part—at prices varying from £2, 10s. 8d. to £3, 4s. 1d., allowing them a term of three or four years for payment, plus an interest of 8 per cent, per annum.
The Province of Córdoba is, after the Province of Buenos Ayres, that in which the land has most rapidly risen in value. Transactions in rural property are very numerous and represent an important figure. In the five years from 1899 to 1903, about 9,386,000 acres have changed hands, and in 1904 alone 3,820,830 acres were sold.
It is difficult to give an account of these transactions by reason of their number; but to cite only the most important, we may mention a block of 61,750 acres in the department of Juarez Celman, belonging to Alejandro Roca, which was sold at public auction in the early part of 1905, at prices varying from 17s. 101⁄2d. to £2, 6s. per acre. In view of the prices which the buyers realised later, they made a splendid bargain; none of them sold for less than double what he gave. In the Union department of the same Province, 59,904 acres were sold at prices varying from 13s. 3d. to £1, 16s. 11d. per acre.
Another important sale, effected also in the early part of the same year, was that which took place in the department of Tulumba, fifty miles from the colony and railway station of Morteros on the Central Argentine railway. The block
sold comprised an area of 20,826 acres, and the prices obtained varied from 1s. 5.8d. to 2s. 2d. per acre.