Agriculture in Argentina is carried out on an enormous scale, and the hopes of travellers who visited the country a century ago have been realised. But the country is too new, there is too much virgin soil for settled agricultural conditions, and farmers prefer pushing further afield and taking larger holdings to tilling a farm with care for his son to hold after him. Consequently there is little of that _petite culture_ which beautifies European countries and adds to the comfort of life; and, further, in most parts of Argentina, good as are the means of transporting staples, they are not of the kind which would make minute farming industries profitable. It is not probable that these conditions will change until there has been a large increase of population. As long as the increase is due to immigration--and many of the settlers look forward to returning to their native land when they have obtained a competence--farming methods will be hasty and extensive. The forest industries of Argentina, though not fully developed, are very valuable. There are said to be 60,000 square miles of timber in the Gran Chaco, and parts of Patagonia are well wooded. Much of the wood is of great value, and the following are among the most useful for commercial purposes. The ñandubay, a kind of acacia, reaches a height of about 25 feet and is used for making fences and rafters. The wood is extremely hard and durable. The algarroba also yields good timber, and its fruit and leaves are used for fattening cattle, while the Indians brew a kind of beer from the pods. The lapacho, of the bignonia species, rises to a height of 100 feet, and its wood is used for cabinet work. The urunday is a tree of similar appearance but larger, and its building wood is said to last two hundred years. The palo amarillo is a mimosa and used for making furniture. There are in the north cedars of excellent quality, both red and white, which attain a height of 160 feet. The Jesuits introduced into the country several varieties of palms, and there are many of the trees known in Europe, such as poplars, willows, and walnuts. But by far the most valuable tree in Argentina is the quebracho,[120] which grows in two varieties, red and white; its full height is 80 feet, and it takes a hundred years to come to maturity; the trunk is about 30 inches in diameter. It is the commercial staple in Argentine timber, and the railways have given a great impetus to the trade, in which the Province of Santiago del Estero seems to have been the pioneer. In 1884 it had five thousand men engaged in cutting railway sleepers, but it was not till 1889 that the export trade began, when 14,000 tons of round logs were shipped from Santa Fé.