The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-04


of the world.
A new wheat region is that of the south.
The Argentine from north to south is longer
than the United States. During the past
few months L have been away down in Pata-
gonia. 1 have Travelled thousands of miles
through tillable grounds which have never
been touched by the pillow. Three hundred
miles south of Buenos Ayres there is
thriving seaport called Bahia Blanca. There
are big wheat warehouses there, and the
railroad men tell me that they have more
wheat than they can handle. This wheat
comes from the southern part of the prov
ince of Buenos Ayres, a province which is
enormous in it's extent and which is almost
altogether composed of good land. Just
south of this region there are vast pampas
having scanty pasturage and usually looked
upon as deserts. Through these pampas run
the two great rivers. Colorado and Negro,
or in other words, Red and Black rivers.
travelled for days along these rivers in COM
pany with a party of railroad surveyors.
The rivers have a quantity of water the
year around, and their fall is such as to
make irrigation possible for wide distance
along them from the Andes to the sea. In
the future there will be irrigated wheat
farms throughout that region. The land is
as rich as any part of Colorado or Utah or
California, and it's settlement and use is only
a question of time. Already the Welsh,
who have a colony much further south, are
growing wheat by irrigation. They are now
exporting about 5000 tons a year, and this
has all been grown on what until now was
the desert sands of Patagonia About Rosa
rio and elsewhere in this valley Of the Pa
rama the soil is rich, black loan from six
inches to three feet deep lying on a bed of
clay All the country for hundreds of miles
above and below Rosario and comprising
large parts Of the provinces of Buenos
Ayres, Santa Fe and Entire Rios, are com
posed of this soil, which is very good for
wheat.
I have never seen such poor farming
anywhere as is going on in the Argentine.
Our own farmers are bad enough but these
people are infinitely worse. In the United
States the average yield of wheat per acre,
taking the whole country, is from twelve
to thirteen bushels. That of the Argentine
is not over ten. In England, where the
soil is more carefully studied and cared
for, the average is twenty-nine bushels per
acre in Holland twenty-five bushels and
in France eighteen. The most Of the wheat
of this country is raised by Italian immi-
grants, many of whom farm the land on
the shares They do their work in the
toughest and most slovenly way. Much
of the wheat is soWed on the ground as
it is first plowed, the grain being dropped
among the clods. Other farmers drag brush
over the field and some of the better farm
ers use the harrow. The blowing is done
with bullocks, who drag the plows through
the burrows by means of a yoke attached
to their horns. No fertilizer whatever is
used and the only idea of the man seems
to be- to get the wheat into the ground and
then sit down and wait for the crop.
ARGENTINE FARM LIFE.
The life of the Argentine farmer would
never suit our people, An American farmer
could not be happy here without he brought
his friends and associates along with him.
cannot descrihe the barrcnness and dreari-
ness of the life. In most of the wheat coun-
try there are no trees. The little hut of the
farmer, made of mud, stands out alone on
the dreary landscape. 1t has not a sign OF
comfort, and the farmers do not seem to
care for anything but their wheat crop.
Most of them have no gardens. They run
their accounts at the nearest grocery and
make annual settlements when they sell
their wheat Most of them drink to excess,
and few have any thought beyond this one
crop. All have large families, and at the
times of planting and harvesting nearly all
work. You may see boys of eight riding
horses in the field and girls of nine and ten
are doing their share of the harvest. The
lack of elevators and other conditions de-
mand that the wheat should be harvested
quickly and at this time you will not find a
harder working people in the world than
these Italian farmers of the Argentine.
Women and girls, men and boys, labor with
all their strength from sunrise to sunset,
and when it is moonlight you may see them
out under the stars binding and thrashing
wheat. 1t is the same in planting time, but
between these seasons there is q long Vaca-
ton The result is that the failure of a
crop means partial starvation. There is no
reason for this. The land is susceptible of
growing OF a great variety Of crops and as
blowing can be done here every month of
the year, the Argentine farmer could raise
everything he uses. AS it is, it is said that
he can now produce wheat at a cost of from
% to 50 cents a bushel. This may be so, but
taking the average of good and bad crops
it is probable that wheat costs as much
here as it does in the United States.
1t is curious to see how the wheat is car
ried to the cars from such farms as are
far from the railroad. 1t is hauled in bull
lock carts, the wheels of which are about
eight feet high. A load weighing several
tons is balanced between a couple of these
wheels, and from dozen to sixteen bull
locks are harnessed up in double file in
front of it. AS the cart moves onward over
the rough road the wheels give out such
screechng that you think there must be d
hog-killing going on near by. If you tell
the farmer that a bit of grease on the axle
would stop the noise, he replies that this
is necessary, and that the bullocks will not
move unless they hear it. In some few of
the large farms modern machinery is used,
and the thrashing is commonly done with
European or American thrashers.
TROUBLES OF THEIR OWN.
The Argentine is subject to droughts and
the crop rises and falls according to the
weather The worst thing, however, that
the farmers have to contend Nth is the
locusts. The pest that infests The Argentinei
is fully as bad as the locust plague with
which the Lord afflicted Pharaoh The only
difference was that Pharaoh had his locusts
for few days, but the Argentines seem to
be having theirs as a regular thing. The
plague does not extend to the extreme
SOUTH but for the past seven years the
wheat farmers of the Parana valley have
been seriously damaged by it. There are
lot of locusts this year. Many people believe