Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-04-09
ARGENTINE A RIVAL.
HER TRADE an GRAIN GROWING
FAST.
Agricultural Industry of the United
States Seriously Menaced-An Indi-
cation as to What Our Wheat Farm.
ers May Expect in the Future.


The people of the United States have
very little comprehension of the growth
of the agricultural industry in the Ar
gentine Republic and Uruguay and the
danger that confronts our grain as well
as our cattle interests from that direction,
says Washington correspondent.
In 1880 the Argentine Republic was
importing flour and wheat, but in 1882
the tide turned, and nearly 1000 tons of
wheat were exported from that country.
About that time modern mills were intro
duced also, and soon after the -four pro-
duct exceeded the local demand and the
Argentine millers began to ship it to Eu-
rope. The exports of wheat in 1882 were
l,700 tons, and in 1884 the first shipments
of -four were 3, 134 tons; in 1890 the total
had reached 32I ,S94 tons of wheat and
12,117 tons of flour, and in 1894 SOS, 600
tons of wheat and J6,S12 tons Of -four.
Mr.. Mulhall, the well-known statisti-
clan of the London Times, is also editor
of the Buenos Ayres Standard, and he
gives it as his opinion that the area in
wheat in the Argentine Republic in 1895
was more than double that of 1893. The
following are his estimates of the wheat
acreage for the last three years, and they
will give some idea of the magnitude as
well as the growth of the industry in that
country and what our wheat farmers are
to expect in the future:
Years. Acres.
1893. 3.3O5. 600
1874. ................... 5,4o3, 2UO
1879. ................,.. ,346,OOO
The number of immigrants to the Ar
gentine Republic in 1891 was 2S, 266; for
the first eleven months of 1895 they num-
bered 5O,OS1, and during November alone
they numbered 1868, which will bring
the total for the year up to 10000. The
most of these immigrants so into the in
terror and settle upon the agricultural
lands which are furnished them free by
the Government In fact, the agricul-
tural development of that country is very
similar to that which was going on in the
Mississippi valley twenty years ago.
1t is important also to consider that the
cost of raising wheat in the Argentine Re
public will average % per cent less than
in the United States, and that the average
cost of transporting it from the farmers
cart to the hold of the steamer is only
about 10 per cent of the market value at
the seaboard. Thus, assuming the aver
age price of wheat in Buenos Ayres at
$25 gold a ton, the average cost of trans
portation is $3.50 toh.
The same story may be told about Uri-
quay. Mr. Rodriguez Diez, of Montevi-
dio, who has recently been in the United
States as the agent of his Government
for the purpose of examining into the
methods of our agricultural department
for the purpose of organizing something
similar in Uruguay, recently made a very
interesting statement before the Commit
tee of Ways and Means concerning the
growth of the export trade in beef pro-
ducts and cereals from his country. He
showed by official statistics that the ex-
ports of wheat from Uruguay had increas-
ed from $1G9, ,307 in 1893 to 81, 49,, ,S03 in
1894, and it was his opinion that in 1895
the gain was 100 per cent He showed,
also, that there has been a similar in
crease in the exports of -four, which were
only 1,054 tons i'm 1893, but jumped to
360,024 tons in 1894. The great bulk of
this -four goes to Brazil-95 per cent of it
and the exports in 1895 were doubled.
The exports of corn from Uruguay in
1898 were $23,27 and in 1894 1885,, $50.
There was very large increase in 1895,
the principal market being Brazil. Mr..
Rodriguez stated that no more wind mills
are being erected in South America. They
are all now mounted with Hungarian
stones and moved by steam mower.