The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of EnterpriseFraser, John Foster
History
The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of Enterprise
Fraser, John Foster
Argentina -- Description and travel
Anyone who visits the school for viticulture in Mendoza, for agriculture
and live stock in Cordoba, and for arboriculture and sugar-making in
Tucuman--and I saw all three--comes away nothing less than amazed at the
way these transplanted Latins, away south of the Equator and across six
thousand miles of ocean, are making headway--and the start only begun a
few years ago. There is the real spirit of enthusiasm combined with an
optimism which to a man from a staid old country seems exaggerated
until, seeing what has been done, imagination is allowed to jump freely
into the future. At Mendoza, nestling at the foot of the Andes and
reminiscent of a town in Tuscany, where the whole countryside is covered
with vineyards and wine is being made to supply millions of wine
drinkers in the country--for the Argentine peasant takes wine with his
breakfast--experiments are made with the best known vines from Europe on
a farm of sixty-seven acres, so that grapes suitable to the soil may be
matured. At Cordoba the school has 445 acres, and investigation is made
to secure earlier and higher yields, and with special attention to
obtaining varieties which have powers of resisting drought. The same
sort of thing goes on at Tucuman. The sugar industry is increasing at
astonishing speed. Many men with scant practical knowledge are attracted
to it. The school gives them instruction and will send members of the
technical staff to the sugar factories and distilleries to give
assistance. Facts like these argue that Argentina is a country really to
be reckoned with, and is not to be dismissed--as I have heard it
dismissed in England, even amongst those who consider themselves
educated--as a rubbishy South American Republic, whose only crop is
revolutions.
All over the Republic "regional schools" are being set up to provide
instruction, not in general agricultural subjects, but in regard to the
special requirements of the locality--for Argentina varies in climate
from tropical in the north to stern cold in the south; dairying, with a
model dairy, at Belle Ville; fruit culture at San Juan; forestry in the
Benitz colony. A scheme has been devised to equip Argentina with
agricultural knowledge by means of courses for children and adults,
travelling lecturers, information bureaus, co-operative experiments,
regional shows, encouragement of agricultural societies, organisation of
regional agricultural experts and military farms. Further, the National
Government have done an enormous service in providing irrigation works
in regions where the rainfall is uncertain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account