We may use the same table as relating to linseed, substituting £7, 18s. 6d. per ton, or thereabouts, for the sowing, and £1, 1s. per ton for thrashing. In this district linseed-farming is accompanied by certain risks, on account of the scanty rain and the late frosts; sometimes the harvest is 7, 8, or 10 quintals (metric) per hectare; but it is usually only 3 or 4.[49] [Footnote 49: In normal years, if the fields have been well worked, one may count on an average of 36 bushels of wheat per 2-1/2 acres, or 14 per acre; 36 bushels of maize per acre, and 12·5 bushels of linseed per acre. On virgin land the results are often of great interest; for it is not uncommon to obtain over 20 bushels of wheat per acre, (1 bushel = 60 lbs.).] In order that these figures representing the farmer’s profit shall give a true idea of the reality, it must be remembered that besides the wheat crop he can also obtain another and equally profitable crop of maize in the same year, and he may also increase his profits by fattening pigs and raising game and other products which command a ready sale in the neighbouring towns. These examples must not of course be taken as representing a general law; the net income of course depends upon the cost of production and the yield of each harvest, and these two factors may vary infinitely, where the crops under consideration are as large as those raised in the Argentine. But what we may affirm is that, besides a certain number of farms lying fallow, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin soil, purchasable at a low price, on which it is enough to cast the seed, after a superficial cultivation, in order to obtain a splendid harvest. In conditions as favourable as these, and using machinery which enables the farmer to cultivate enormous surfaces with little labour, there are always serious probabilities of success for the agriculturalist. This it is that explains the great increase of cultivated lands during the last few years, whether virgin lands divided and sold by the owner, or lands leased to tenants who pay in kind or give up a percentage of the crops. * * * * * In a country whose soil gives such wonderfully abundant yields, great fortunes, and fortunes rapidly made, are common. The Argentine, like the United States, has her legendary type of immigrant, who has progressed in a very short time from extreme poverty to great riches, by applying his energy and initiative to agriculture or stock-raising. Here are two of the most notable and best-known, examples. A few years ago there died in the Argentine one of the greatest landed proprietors; a man named Santamarina, whose life-history is worth relating.