As we have already stated, there are no complete statistics available, such as there are in the United States and in other countries, which give in detail the cost of working farms of various sizes, and the prices at which the latter sell their produce; and it is only from such details that we can calculate the net profit of each acre. But, despite this lack, we can probably find the data we require by resorting to the opinion of those competent in such matters, either because they are themselves practising farmers, or because they have set themselves the same problem as that we are facing. In the good lands of the Provinces of Córdoba and Buenos Ayres, and in the Pampa Centrale, the hectare may yield the settler 50 piastres (in notes), or £4, 8s.; in other words, £1, 15s. 7-1/2d. per acre; provided there is no hail, and if he escapes the other agricultural plagues. Some estates this year have produced as much as 2000 kilos of wheat per hectare, or 29 bushels per acre; yielding, at $6 per ton (the Argentine ton of 2205 lb.) a yield of 120 piastres[47] (paper) per hectare, or £4, 5s. 6-1/4d. per acre. Estimating the expenses at 25 to 33 per cent., there remains a profit, let us say, of £3, from which we must still deduct some 10s. for rent, so that the labourer draws a final profit of 70 piastre notes per hectare, or £2, 10s. [Footnote 47: The piastre note is approximately worth 2·2 francs, or 19·2 pence——1s, 7-1/5d.] In one particular establishment, not far from the station of Labenlaye, on the Buenos Ayres Pacific line, the yield of a family of _métayers_, who cultivate 125 to 150 acres, and pay a quarter of the crop to the proprietor, and also work on the cattle-ranch on days when there is no work in the fields, make an annual profit of £88 a year. This is equivalent of a profit of from 10s. 4d. to 14s. 4d. per acre, earned by cultivating the soil as _métayers_ or tenants in kind, retaining 75 per cent. of the crop; but it must be remembered that this is absolutely a net profit: all the labourers’ expenses, the cost of nourishment, clothing, and other current expenses, are all debited first; so that the £88 may be saved or spent or invested. But an argument more eloquent than all the arithmetical demonstrations which we might draw from particular cases is the well-known fact that every year a large number of labourers become the proprietors of the holdings they cultivate, or acquire other holdings in the neighbourhood. It is by no means an exceptional thing for those who cultivate a tract of land to draw from it in a single year a sufficient sum of money to acquire it for themselves, while reserving the expenses of sowing and other work to be done before the next harvest. To support this statement, here are a few exacter details as to the capital required to reclaim a holding and its approximate yield.