Omaha daily bee., 1898-12-11
SHEEP FLOCKS OF ARGENTINE
A Business Of Enormous Proportions and
Great Profit.
FREEZING MUTTON FOR FOREIGN TRADE
How the Wool II Handled ana the
Meat Prepared for shipment
AbrOad-Extent of the
Industry,

fConvrieht 1898. by Frank g. Carpenter.)
BUENOS AYRES, Nov. 10. 1S9S.-(Speciaf
Correspondence Of The Bee.)-How would
you like a mutton chop two months oidE
Hundreds OF tons of such meat Is sold In
the markets Of Europe every month. Some
of 1t comes from Australia, not a little from
New Zealand and Of late a great deal from
the Argentine republic. 1t is shipped In
a frozen state. and. II properly cared for.
will keep for a year and taste as fresh and
Juicy at the end of that time as when cut
from the dying sheep.
We ship vast quantities OF beef to Europe
every year, but the passage across the At
lantic ia so swift and the waters SO cool
tfat the meat Is merely chilled and kept IN
cold storage. In going from the Argentine
to Europe the ships must steam over the
seething equator. 1t requires from twenty
to thirty days for the voyage and all meat
must 60 either alive or frozen. Living ami
mails are expensive freight, and the result IS
the Argentine is now freezing Its mutton for
shipment. 1t has millions invested in frozen
meat factories, and it has one establishment
which Is said to be the largest frozen meat
factory of the world.
Before describing my visit to this place
let me tell you something of the Argentines
as sheep raisers. We know a little as to
their grain output. Their wheat, when hey
have a fair crop, makes our wheat fall In
the markets Of Europe. Still the wheat
farms are a bagatelle in the consideration
of the products Of the Argentine. These
people are stock farmers rather than grain
farmers. When a locust invasion comes
there is considerable distress, but should a
stock famine occur the country would have
a panic. At present not 1 per cent of the
Argentine is agricultural. The soil IL In
many sections thin and poor. The grain pro-
ducing areas are limited. The pastures,
however. are the largest of the world. No
such extent Of grazing hands exists any
where else, and the area Of the stock farms
increases every year. The character Of the
grasses improve by pasturing them with
sheep and cattle, and the iocks and herds
steadily grow. It is estimated that one
half Of the republic Is adapteu to sheep
raising. This max . an area Of 5s1, 0vv square
miles. . territory greater than ten states
the size Of New York.
Room for More.
How many sheep the land will support IL
not known, but the number will run into
the hundreds Of millions. Some parts Of
the province Of Buenos Ayres, In which four
nfths OF the sheep Of the Argentine now
are, will feed two or three sheep to the
acre, and other parts further south need
from two to four acres for a single sheep.
The average In Buenos Ayres Is 500 sheep
10 the square mile. or that number to a
section OF land. The total number of sheep
In the Argentine Is now los, 900, 900. more
than twice that Of the United States. It is
enough to give every family In the country
a flock of 100 sheep and have some millions
for export. The sheep. however, are not
divided up in this way. They are in the
hands OF comparatively few. I know of men
who each own 100. 900 and there are one or
two nabobs who have. ! am told. as many as
1000, 900.
The usual size Of a flock OF sheep num-
osrs from 1900 to 1000. This many are put