The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-20
LHTIN- AMERICAN A NEW TYPE
THE ARGENTINE,S WHEAT FIELDS
AND SUGAR PLANTATIONS.
Progress of the Country, It's Railroads
and TeIegraphs and Normal
Schools Founded by Yankees.
Copyright, 1898. by Frank G. carpenter.)

states, j
as different as lemons are different from
pumpkins. Sometimes it seems to me that
the United States is the lemon and the Ar
gentine the pumpkin, but oftener the United
States is the bigger of the two We have a
booming country. Things also boom in the
Argentine, but the character and conditions
of prosperity are entirely different here.
We raise some wheat; so does the Argen-
tine We raise wool; the Argentine far out
strips us in sheep. We have the more land,
but the Argentine has territory which is
almost all good for something, and it is in
area at least one-third the size of our coun-
try, without Alaska and our new islands
The Argentine is longer from north to south
than the United States. It is almost twice
as long. If we could lift it up at the cor
ners, twist it around and spread it over our
country from east to west, placing the low
est edge of Patagonia at New York the bor-
ders Of Brazil and Bolivia would be some
distance beyond Salt Lake City. If we could
cut it up into patchwork pieces and fit them
upon the territory of the United States, ev-
cry inch of our land east of the Mississippi
would be covered, and the remnants would
be larger than the area of a number of our
States west of that river. The Argentine
Republic is twelve times as big as Great
Britain. 1t is five times as large as France
and it is greater in area than the States of
Mississippi Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico
Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado and
Kansas combined. This wonderful land is
made up of mountains and plains It's noun
famous country is comparatively small, but
it's plains are among the largest of the
world, extending from the hot lands Of the
tropics on the edge of Brazil to the cold
terraced pampas Of southern Patagonia.
VALLEY OF THE RIVER PLATE.
The best parts of the Argentine Republic
have been built up by the wonderful system
of streams which has it's outlet in the River
Plate. These rivers are the Uruguay, Par
aguay, Pilcamayo and Parana. They form
a vast drainage system which has been car
rying the lands down from the mountains
for ages and building up this country. They
drain country larger than the basin of the
Mississippi. and. in fact. as large as half of
the whole United States.
The best lands of the Argentine lie along
the rivers. The most of the country is a
great plain gently sloping in the north and
central part from the Andes to these
streams. If you could see the Rio de la
Plata, or River Plate, you could realize what
great earth builder it is 1t is an i'm
$50 miles long to the point where it is formed
by the junction of the Uruguay and Parana~
1t is so full of soil that it drops 10000 tons
of mud every hour into its bed. This is a
load so great that If you could load it on to
two-horse wagons it would take a line of
teams sixty miles long to carry it. / entered
the Rio de la Plata on a German steamer,
in which 1 sailed from the Falkland islands
to MonteVdeo. The waters of the sea were
stained by the mud long before we reached
the mouth of the river. 1t took us all night
to sail across it, and in the morning we
were still some distance from Montevideo
When took my bath I found the tub filled
with what looked like split pea soup, and
when let the fluid out there was sediment
in the bottom Of the tub so thick that I
left foot prints in 1t quite as plain as those
which frightened Robinson Crusoe in the
sand of his desert island.
The sea captains tell me that these enor-
nous masses of mud are rapidly filling up
the bed of the Rio de la Plata. IT'S depth
varies from thirteen to thirty-six feet, but
1t has many banks and shoals. This silt
has given it a bottom of fine sand The big
steamers which come to Buenos Ayres often
have to plow their way through the mud
and already the people are talking of a
jetty system similar to that which Fades
built at the mouth of the Mississippi
HOW THE ARGENTINE LOOKS.
I can give you a better idea of the Argen-
tine Republic by comparing it with parts of
the United States. Take the great valley of
the Rio de la Plata as you find it here and
for hundreds Of miles to the west and north
of Buenos Ayres. If you will imagine your
self in Illinois south of Springfield along the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers you will be in a
country much like this. You must, however.
cut out the cornfelds leave out the woods
and make the lands all pasture. Take away
forty-nihe farmhouses out of every fifty,
tear down all the barns. and in the places
of our neat country homes put huts of mud
and straw and bricks, sometimes matched
and sometimes rooted with galvanized iron.
Then put here and there larger group of
low buildings surrounded by flowers and
trees belonging to the rich proprietor and
you have the basin of the Rio de la Plata.
You must spot the landscape with sheep and
vast fields. for the farms often include tens
of thousands Of acres and one man may
own many square miles Of land.
Further south the Argentine is a table
land very like northern Nebraska 1t is COW
cred with sand and grass. Streams twenty
feet deep and eight feet wide cut their way
through crumbling banks. The land rises in
terraces from the sea to the Andes The
soil is poor and much Of it is sandy plain
upon which nothing will grow except by
irrigation.
Again, going from the basin of the Rio de
la Plata westward. the land rises gently to
the province Of Cordoba, one Of the seats Of
the old civilization, and still further west to
Mendoza, in the foot hills of the Andes
Cordoba is devoted largely to grazing. 1T
has a mountain chain running through it
and it is much like West Virginia, save that
it is not wooded. The province Of Mendoza
is on the plateau OF the Andes. It is a grape
and wine country. its vines producing ton
of grapes to the acre and every twenty vines
gallon of wine. Its general character is
like that of Pennsylvania about Lancaster
and York.
THE TROPICAL ARGENTINE.
Going further northward the scenery OF
the Argentine changes. lou get into the
tropics The provinces Of Tucuman raises