CHAPTER XXI ESTANCIA LIFE Similarities between the farming routine of Uruguay and of Argentina--The Banda Oriental a pastoral rather than an agricultural land--Viticulture an asset in estancia affairs--Wheat, maize, and linseed--Scarcity of alfalfa--Excellence of the natural pastures--The possibilities of private agricultural colonisation--Favourable outlook for grazing countries in general--Lemco estancias--The estancia San Juan--A comprehensive enterprise--Cattle, cereals, and viticulture--Stone quarries--A Campo sketch--The cutting out of a bullock--A Gaucho meal. The Uruguayan estancia life resembles that of Argentina very closely. And of this latter so much has been written in recent years that a too lengthy description of the routine of one of the great cattle farms would almost inevitably savour of repetition and superfluity. The duties of both estanciero and his major-domo are, indeed, almost identical with those of their brethren upon the other side of the great river. There are similar rides of inspection in order to "revise camp," similar great _rodeos_, or gatherings of cattle, and a general method of life that is distinct from the other merely in minor details. [Illustration: THE BICHADERO ESTANCIA.] [Illustration: HEREFORD CATTLE ON THE BICHADERO ESTANCIA. To face p. 246.] In the main ethics of the farming itself, it is true, there are some differences. Seeing that Uruguay is a pastoral rather than an agricultural land, the system of setting apart a certain proportion of a private estancia for the purpose of colonisation by crop-raising tenants is almost unknown. On the other hand, as it happens that the soil of a portion of almost every province is suitable for viticulture, a great number of the Uruguayan landowners throughout the republic cultivate vineyards--an industry that in Argentina is confined almost entirely to the two great grape-growing centres of Mendoza and San Juan. In many districts of the Banda Oriental, moreover, fruit-growing forms part and parcel of the industrial programme of an estancia, instead of necessarily forming an entirely separate branch of commerce, as is the case in Argentina.