The real development of agriculture in the Province of Buenos Ayres dates only from 1895. Until then it was considered merely as a country especially adapted for stock-raising, and this false conception was so rooted in many minds that it was believed that agriculture was out of the question, except in the Province of Santa Fé. Comparing statistics, we find that the latter Province had 992,080 acres of wheat in 1888 and 2,470,000 in 1895, while Buenos Ayres boasted only of 510,090 and 906,490 acres in the same years. It was much the same with linseed; the figures being 180,300 and 657,020 acres in Santa Fé, and 108,650 and 160,550 in Buenos Ayres. Maize formed an exception; while Santa Fé, in the two years given, had only 150,670 and 429,540 acres under maize, Buenos Ayres had 1,259,700 and 1,652,430 acres. Only in the agricultural year 1901-1902 did Buenos Ayres step in front of Santa Fé, and attain such crops of wheat as until then were unknown, leaving all competitors far behind. In the matter of linseed, for which Santa Fé has always had a special predilection, that Province has always, since 1885, maintained its superiority over Buenos Ayres. As for maize, Buenos Ayres retains its superior position, although it is just to admit that in 1901-1902 the other Province made considerable progress. Before leaving Buenos Ayres, we must mention that the second place in the culture of wheat, is taken by the region known as the West, which, with its 1,471,360 acres, or 29 per cent. of the total, forms, like the analogous region in North America, one of the great grain districts of the Argentine. In this region there are cantons, such as those of Nueve de Julio, Lincoln, Pehuajo, General Villegas, Trenque Lauquen, and others, which, reputed from all time unfit for agriculture, have surprised every one by revealing themselves as absolute mines of wealth. This region has been touched, it is true, by the magic ring of the railroad, which has unrolled in these new territories, so full of unexploited wealth, an immense network of tracks, whose marvellous effects make us think of the tales of the _Thousand and One Nights_. It is in this region that we have seen, as the logical result of the agricultural awakening, the most surprising increase in the value of the soil. These prices mounted by leaps and bounds; from £1, 15s. to £3, 10s., from £3, 10s. to £7, from £7 to £8, 16s. per acre, and even more; yet one is forced to admit that this increase, though apparently capricious, has a real enough foundation, since it is based upon the remunerative qualities of the soil. In the Province of Santa Fé, the cradle of the agricultural settlement in the Argentine, there are at present 820 colonies and cultivated lands, of which the surface under seed embraces an area of 7,223,980 acres, divided as follows: Wheat, 3,259,920 acres; linseed, 2,037,990 acres; pea-nuts, 29,390 acres; lucerne, 1,787,280 acres; other crops, 111,400 acres.