Naturally manufacturing save for home consumption is of slight importance, except of products of the pastoral industry, as of dairies and of meat extract. For home use there are 115 flour mills, 45 others, as of hardware, soap, macaroni; 1 sugar factory, 3 starch, 1 cement, 4 breweries. Many of these are in Montevideo. The Government proposes the construction of chemical factories for the production of sulphuric, nitric, carbolic, and acetic acid, glycerine, benzol, alcohol, sulphuric ether, etc., and a powder and explosive factory; these to cost over $2,000,000, material and machinery to enter free of duty. An important project of the Government is the development of water power from the cataracts of the Uruguay River, which will be equivalent to 3,000,000 tons of coal per annum. Two dams are planned, one movable and one fixed, with canals by which 419 miles of river will be open to navigation from the lower section. Irrigation is included in the project, and 37,000 acres near Montevideo are to be irrigated as an illustration. Fifteen cities have authorized work in connection with this project. INVESTMENTS Aside from the development of hydro-electric power and the construction of public works of various kinds including railways, it is probable that agriculture and fisheries present the most favorable openings, with good possibilities also in manufacturing industries, stone cutting, and mining. Stock raising is already pretty well developed. CHAPTER XLV BRAZIL: AREA, HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, POPULATION, ETC. The country of Brazil, largest of the South American Republics, has also a greater area than the United States without Alaska, and is more than three-fourths the size of all Europe. It cannot therefore be considered as a whole so easily as the other Republics. It is essential to differentiate between the various regions and States; for the dissimilarity is not confined to climate and productions; or to the character of the people, by reason of some being indigenous and others of European descent. It arises in part from the long coast line and the difficulty of land communication; in part from the fact that in some districts the population is almost entirely of European descent while in others there is a large percentage of negro blood; as well as from differences in physical and climatic conditions. Thus the Capital is not so markedly the centre of the Republic as in Argentina, and the States are more loosely bound together than in the other Republics. The States and the character of the people may be said to differ as much among themselves as the countries of the West Coast from each other, a point of importance to notice in commercial relations. AREA, POPULATION, BOUNDARY