The science of pedigree herds and the culture of carefully-enclosed pastures have created, says a distinguished writer, the true pastoral _industry_, in which stables and barns and sheds take the place of the ancient “corral.”[54] The wealthy owner drives from the railway station to his estancia in a carriage; the old rustic ranch-house is transformed into a true country-house, sometimes a veritable _château_, with a park and gardens. There are estancias within a hundred leagues of Buenos Ayres which we remember as desert country in the power of the Indians, where now traps and carriages of English type are seen crossing the plains, where folk dine in evening dress in luxurious homes. The European stock-breeders have driven back the Gaucho to the great estates on the borders of the desert. [Footnote 54: _Cf. Costumbres y Creencias populares de las Provincias Argentines_: A lecture by M. P. Groussac at the World’s Congress at Chicago, June the 4th, 1893; published in _La Nacion_ of the 23rd of October 1893.] Nothing would be more difficult——and for our part we renounce the task——than to say which are the first stock-raising establishments of the Republic; whether by reason of their extent, the numbers and the breed of their animals, or the magnificent dwellings of their owners. Establishments of this type are to be counted by hundreds, by thousands. Nevertheless——though exposed to the danger of falling into inevitable errors or omissions, for lack of precise information——we must not forget to mention the _Estancia San Juan_, founded by Señor Leonard Pereyra, at a distance of 25 miles from Buenos Ayres, and a mile and a half from the La Plata, and consisting of over 40 square miles of meadows in full luxuriance. Then there is the _Estancia San Jacinto_, belonging to Señor Hugel T. de Alvear, an establishment reputed as one of the foremost in the country, which embraces an area of 244 square miles, or about one-third the area of the county of Surrey. Of this enormous area some 64 square miles are under lucerne, and support 100,000 Durham cattle, 100,000 Lincoln sheep, and 10,000 horses. The _Estancia la Gloria_ of Santamarina & Sons, situated at Laprida, in the Province of Buenos Ayres, comprises 145 square miles, and supports 20,000 cattle and 60,000 sheep.