The Argentine in the Twentieth CenturyMartínez, Alberto B.
History
The Argentine in the Twentieth Century
Martínez, Alberto B.
Argentina -- Commerce; Argentina -- Economic conditions; Finance -- Argentina
Agriculture, as compared to stock-raising, is, from the economical point
of view, a source of wealth having quite a different bearing upon the
general prosperity and welfare of a nation. It is the fairy which little
by little transforms the vast plains of the Argentine pampas into a more
animated landscape, peopled by numerous homesteads, foci of colonisation,
which then develop into villages, which in a score of years may perhaps
be important cities. Agriculture summons the railroad, stimulates
emigration, promotes the division of the soil, creates the small
proprietor; it influences even the manners and morals of the inhabitants,
for it demands more labour, more intelligence than ranching; nimbler
wits, more method, greater foresight.
The comparison between the two great industries of the Argentine is
summed up in the following fact: a property comprising 25,000 acres of
pasture can be put into working order and managed by a staff of ten to
twelve men. For an estate of 1500 acres under culture, one may estimate
that forty to fifty persons, grouped in families, may easily live upon
the soil and prosper. We may perceive by this the great superiority
of agriculture from the point of view of the general interest of the
country. It demands and supports a denser population; it permits the
grouping of this population in villages and cities, it creates, in
proportion, with a smaller capital, a great wealth of produce; in short,
it contributes on the one hand towards increasing the wealth of the
country by participating largely in its exports, and on the other it
increases its power of consumption, by absorbing a greater number of
imported products.
Thus the evolution of the Argentine towards agriculture constitutes a
real progress, and if the country continues to follow the same path,
its development will assuredly not be arrested by lack of soil. The
35 to 37 millions of acres already reclaimed, and at present under
culture, represent at the most a tenth of the total area of cultivable
land, which is estimated roughly at 375 millions of acres, of which at
least 125 millions are perfectly adapted to the culture of cereals. The
four Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Córdoba, Entre Rios, and the
Territory of Pampa Central alone contain some 32-1/2 millions of land
under the plough, while there remains about 170 millions of acres of land
which is just as fertile, and which without manuring or preparation would
yield a splendid crop from the first year of tilth.
This transformation into an agricultural country has already borne
fruit. The figures relating to external commerce, compared with the
world’s statistics of cereal production, show the present position of the
Argentine among the great exporting nations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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