Profiting by the admirable physical advantages of the country, once this trade has obtained the indispensable assistance of rapid and convenient steamers, with special holds or refrigerating chambers for the storage of large quantities of fresh fruit, we are certain that it will not have long to wait for profitable results. Several years ago one of the authors of this book sent to Messrs Garcia, Jacobs & Company, of London, as a commercial sample, a batch of peaches preserved by chilling, and according to the testimony of these merchants the peaches of Buenos Ayres may well be the subject of a successful business, provided that fruit of the superior varieties be produced. Entering into detail, Messrs Garcia & Jacobs added that the best qualities sent had sold satisfactorily; they ended by stating that consignments reaching London in the months of March, April, and May should yield considerable profits. After this experiment many others were made by various persons, until finally, thinking the moment had come for establishing the fruit trade on a solid and lasting basis, the Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company determined to fit their steamers with special “chilled” chambers or holds for the transport of fresh fruit. The first consignments have not been completely satisfactory, as in this trade, which is now being undertaken on a very large scale, every one has a great deal to learn; from the producer, who plants the varieties of fruits which he thinks most suitable for export, the farm labourer, who gathers the fruit, and the man who packs it in special cases, down to the steamship company, which has to confide the care of the refrigerating plant and the holds to a competent technician, whose duty it is to maintain a constant temperature, appropriate to each species of fruit. But even under these still imperfect conditions the progress achieved has been very remarkable, and justifies our assertion that a large export trade in fresh fruit is perfectly practicable. The exhibitions of fruit which the Government of the Republic organises annually, with much practical good sense, have greatly helped to attract attention to the fruit-growing industry, and at the same time to stimulate competition and improvement. These exhibitions have been a veritable revelation to everybody, for very few people suspected that the Argentine produced so great a variety of the best species of fruit-bearing trees; or that she could rival other countries in the matter of production.