In spite of the great progress already achieved—it was not less than 25 per cent., for instance, in the Province of Córdoba in 1903-04—the culture of this species of forage is still in its infancy in the Argentine; it is bound to increase notably, on account of the superb results to be obtained, both from its use as fodder and on account of the manner in which it will transform a certain kind of uncultivated soil which
grows nothing but tough grasses of slow growth and low nutritive value.
One of the first economic effects produced by the growth of lucerne on a particular estate or in a given neighbourhood is that it increases the value of the land on which it has been sown. On this point several cases have been cited which would seem incredible, were they not easily verified. Fields which three or four years ago were sold for 2 paper piastres per acre are to-day worth 30, and lands which were sold for 25 to 30 piastres are now sold for 80 and 100 piastres.[44]
[44] Probably the reader need not be told that the roots of the lucerne plant accumulate enormous quantities of nitrogen-yielding bacilli, thus producing organic compounds in the soil, ready for use by the next crop sown. The old practice of sowing clover and ploughing the roots into an exhausted field revives the land in this manner.—[Trans.]
Lucerne farms also increase the value of the land in their neighbourhood. It is enough to use the phrase, “good land for lucerne,” and the land referred to will immediately realise a high commercial value.
Of the profits to be derived from lucerne when exploited in a rational and up-to-date manner, we may judge from a single instance reported in the Buenos Ayres Standard: a league[45] of meadows sown with lucerne in La Penca, in the south of the Province of Córdoba, has yielded in a year a profit of £30,000; and in another year it actually produced a profit of £42,800. This journal also adds that a league of similar land in New Zealand would be worth no less than £360,000.[46]
[45] This league is that of 2500 hectares, or 6175 acres; making the linear league 3·14 miles.—[Trans.]
[46] Cf. Anales de la Sociedad rural Argentina; Art., El Pais de la Alfalten.
The constant increase of sown lands is certainly the most notable feature of the agricultural situation. It is the more interesting to note that of late years this development has been due to the nation’s own resources, as after the politico-financial crisis of 1890 the current of immigration and colonisation which had assisted agriculture in previous years was almost completely checked. As soon as the flow of immigration is re-established—and it seems to us that