In the good lands of the Provinces of Córdoba and Buenos Ayres, and in the Pampa Centrale, the hectare may yield the settler 50 piastres (in notes), or £4, 8s.; in other words, £1, 15s. 71⁄2d. per acre; provided there is no hail, and if he escapes the other agricultural plagues. Some estates this year have produced as much as 2000 kilos of wheat per hectare, or 29 bushels per acre; yielding, at $6 per ton (the Argentine ton of 2205 lb.) a yield of 120 piastres[47] (paper) per hectare, or £4, 5s. 61⁄4d. per acre. Estimating the expenses at 25 to 33 per cent., there remains a profit, let us say, of £3, from which we must still deduct some 10s. for rent, so that the labourer draws a final profit of 70 piastre notes per hectare, or £2, 10s.

[47] The piastre note is approximately worth 2·2 francs, or 19·2 pence—1s, 71⁄5d.

In one particular establishment, not far from the station of Labenlaye, on the Buenos Ayres Pacific line, the yield of a family of métayers, who cultivate 125 to 150 acres, and pay a quarter of the crop to the proprietor, and also work on the cattle-ranch on days when there is no work in the fields, make an annual profit of £88 a year. This is equivalent of a profit of from 10s. 4d. to 14s. 4d. per acre, earned by cultivating the soil as métayers or tenants in kind, retaining 75 per cent. of the crop; but it must be remembered that this is absolutely a net profit: all the labourers’ expenses, the cost of nourishment, clothing, and other current expenses, are all debited first; so that the £88 may be saved or spent or invested.

But an argument more eloquent than all the arithmetical demonstrations which we might draw from particular cases is the well-known fact that every year a large number of labourers become the proprietors of the holdings they cultivate, or acquire other holdings in the neighbourhood. It is by no means an exceptional thing for those who cultivate a tract of land to draw from it in a single year a sufficient sum of money to acquire it for themselves, while reserving the expenses of sowing and other work to be done before the next harvest.

To support this statement, here are a few exacter details as to the capital required to reclaim a holding and its approximate yield.

According to calculations furnished by a man of great experience in matters of colonisation, the capital required by a family of four or five persons cultivating 250 acres of wheat, including the expense of installation in the first year, may be estimated as follows:—

£S.D.
Two Ploughs, sulky type2120
Two Harrows, threefold7180
One Roller480
One Husker or winnowing machine39120
Twenty Oxen8800
Two Horses8160
Two Carts3540
Harness, chains, implements, etc.8160
House, corral, well, fencing105120
——————
£31980
——————

The family or the colonist who does not possess such capital will find rich proprietors or colonists who will furnish him with implements, draught animals, and seed corn, as well as the necessaries of life. The harvest over, the seed corn is reserved for the next sowing; the expenses of the harvest are deducted, and the net profit is halved, one half going to the proprietor, and one to the colonist. It is thus that the majority of immigrants begin to earn the capital which enables them to become proprietors.

For bachelor immigrants there is another method, which gives excellent results: they place themselves with colonists who possess some capital as “interested servants,” or profit-sharing labourers, lending their services from the ploughing