it is already recovering, thanks to the attractive power of the abundant harvests rather than to any political or administrative measure—we shall certainly see that the agricultural yield of the Republic will receive a fresh impulse from this cause.
The 35 millions of acres sown in 1908-9 represent a little over 4·07 per cent. of the entire surface of the country, as compared to a percentage of ·008 in 1888. Besides this, we must not forget that according to the figures of the agricultural and pastoral census of 1908, 646,620 square miles, or rather more than 39 per cent., are employed in the feeding of 67,211,754 sheep, 29,118,625 horned cattle, 7,531,376 horses, 465,037 mules, and 285,088 asses.
Finally, if we admit the possibility of considerably increasing, by means of the intensive system, the yield of cultivated soil, we see that it will also be possible, on the same stretch of land, to increase the number of head of cattle; so that it is permissible to conclude that the Argentine Republic can still conveniently give up a third of her surface to colonisation, without in the least affecting or damaging the industry of stock-raising.
Knowing the extraordinary progress attained by Argentine agriculture during the last twenty years, as well as the development of each of the particular crops preferred by the Argentine farmer, we must now inquire in what regions of the country this expansion has made itself particularly felt. For this purpose we will divide the Republic into geographical belts, confining ourselves here to an examination of these Provinces in which agricultural progress has been particularly notable, and limiting ourselves to the three principal forms of culture:
Total Surface cultivated during the Agricultural Year 1908-1909.
It will be seen from this table that the great agricultural belt of the Argentine is formed by the Province of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Córdoba, Entre Rios, and the Territory of Pampa Central. This latter has taken an important place in the national production, and so rapidly, that we may still prophesy a notable expansion of its resources. The other productive belts have in proportion made less progress, excepting the Province of Mendoza, where vine-growing has been developed, and that of Tucuman, where the culture of the sugar-cane has made great strides.
There, for the moment, the progress of agriculture has halted, as the other districts will only be developed later on, when the populations of the former regions overflow, unless some hitherto unexploited source of wealth—such as the quebracho in Chaco—attracts capital and labour.
At the time of the last harvest the Province of Buenos Ayres was in the front rank in the matter of wheat, no less than 6,184,180 acres being devoted to that cereal. This enormous area represented an increase of 2,933,920 acres since the year 1901-1902, and of 5,254,310 acres since 1895. If we compare this figure with that of 1888, when only 609,560 acres were under wheat, we find an increase of 5,574,570 acres.
Of the 6,184,130 acres of wheat sown in the Province of Buenos Ayres in 1908-1909, 3,620,300 acres, or 53 per cent., were in the region known as the “Centre and South” (the first and second groups united), formed by an assemblage of fifty-six