To give some idea of the enormous development of this Province, it is enough to say that in 1898-1899 it counted 176 colonies and 71 settled estates. In 1905-1906 these figures were respectively 348 and 190. The size of these colonies has increased in the same proportions; in 1898-1899 their area was roughly 3,800,000 acres; it increased to 8,910,000. Of this enormous area, reclaimed and cultivated at the time of harvest in 1898-1899, some 3,150,000 acres represented wheat, 434,500 linseed, and 355,000 maize. We must also mention another important crop, which covers a large area of the Province of Córdoba; lucerne, which is represented by some 2,240,000 acres.
But the most surprising fact concerning the Province of Córdoba is not the vast area under the plough, but the prodigious increase of crops of every kind. Thus the area sown with wheat, which in 1898-1899 was 1,588,800 acres, was 2,417,920, in 1903-1904 and 2,695,620 in 1904-1905. It is the same with linseed; in 1898-1899 184,490 acres were sown; in 1903-1904, 439,830 acres. These figures give some indication of the vast agricultural future which lies open before this Province.
Another agricultural revelation has been afforded by the Territory of Pampa Central, which in 1888 had only 14,900 acres under the plough; some 11,000 being in maize, 2100 in lucerne, and 300 in wheat. In 1895 it contained 25,520 acres under culture, and in 1903 308,750 acres were bearing crops of various kinds; wheat, 71,630 acres, and maize, 419,900; and in 1908-1909, the Pampa contained 913,900 acres of cultivated soil; 790,040 under wheat, 74,000 under linseed, and 49,400 under oats.
In the space of twenty years the Pampa, once regarded as a sterile waste, almost impossible of cultivation or of settlement, has seen a great development. It contains to-day more than 80,000 inhabitants; twenty centres of population: about 914,000 acres under cultivation; 464,645 cattle; 4,809,077 sheep, and 281,537 horses; with an annual export of products estimated at 15 millions of paper piastres, or £1,280,000.
Its soil has greatly risen in value; the square league of 2500 hectares (or 6175 acres, or a square nearly 3·14 miles on
the side, or just under 10 square miles) sells for anything up to 100,000 paper piastres, or £8800; and even in the remoter cantons it will sell for £3500 or £4400. This extraordinary progress has been accomplished quite recently; it dates back hardly three years, and the prices tend to increase each day.
Before completing this sketch of the agricultural products of the Argentine, according to the official statistics, we must remind the reader that the total of these products increases by leaps and bounds, so that the figures given must be regarded as strictly provisional, on account of the great development to be foreseen as new centres of colonisation are formed. The Pampa Central, of which we have just spoken as a very mine of wealth, is capable of producing in the future enough meat and grain to nourish a great part of the population of the world.
In the Argentine men employ, for the more important crops, such as wheat, maize, linseed, lucerne, etc., the latest and most perfect agricultural implements and machines; cultivators, ploughs, drills, harvesters, etc., etc. We have not space to mention all; but it is enough to say that in the regions where farming on a large scale is the rule, a progressive spirit is in the air, which impels the owners of great establishments, and even simple settlers, to furnish themselves with the very best machinery, for which they sometimes pay considerable sums. That agriculture has achieved the rapid expansion of which we have just given details, notwithstanding the little help which immigration has lately rendered, is due principally to the employment of the perfected machinery in common use.
The best types of ploughs, harrows, drills, and reapers of all kinds—binder-reapers, traction-engines, winnowing and thrashing machines, all of the best construction and the most recent model—are familiar to the Argentine farmer, who makes constant use of them.