All agriculture is on a gigantic scale. The rapid development has been a surprise to even the most hopeful _estanciero_. Railways have, in many instances, been almost unable to cope with some of the crops, and trains have been run night and day to carry the grain to the exporting centres. The wheat accumulates at the shipping points until vast stacks are piled up at the various stations in the wheat lands. One company’s cars cannot run over another company’s tracks, and this further adds to the congestion. The wheat is carried to the stations on huge carts with wheels eight feet high and drawn by from ten to a dozen oxen. A load of several tons may be balanced between these two lofty wheels. As the carts move forward they are accompanied by an awful screeching noise which is ear-splitting. The carter does not care to use grease, as he says that the noise encourages the oxen. The cry goes up each year for more labourers to care for the crops, and the need still exists. Because of the lack of elevators and granaries the grain must be quickly gathered and threshed. Women and girls, men and boys all work from early morning until late at night for the few harvest weeks. The grains are generally more profitable than stock, and in some districts have crowded the latter out. Corn is one of the most profitable crops at the present time. [Illustration: “THE HARVESTING MACHINES ARE USUALLY PROPELLED FROM THE REAR”] During the harvest time the Camp is a busy place. Clouds of dust all over the horizon denote activity in the grain fields. Managers and overseers are kept busy riding from one group to another. Thousands of Italians come over for the harvests and then return to their native land. The harvesting machines are usually propelled from the rear, either by steam power or animals. Attached to the side of the “strippers,” which simply cut off the heads of the grain, is a large harvest cart into which the grain drops. Four roads will be cut from a central point at right angles to each other, which run to the outer edge of the wheat field. In the central point the oblong stacks are formed. By this system the fields of golden grain rapidly disappear before the onslaughts of the cutting machines. Thirty years ago Argentina was a wheat-importing nation. Some of the knowing ones said wheat could not be successfully grown on the pampas. Since then the grain-producing area has been increased each year and the beginning of the end is not yet in sight. At first it was thought that only the land between the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers was available, but now it has spread south into Patagonia and west to the Andes. The available wheat land has been estimated at more than 200,000,000 acres, of which only a small per cent. is at present under cultivation. This wheat land is mostly a rich black loam, from a few inches to three feet or more deep, surmounting a subsoil of clay.