The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-04
A Visit 10 Rosario, the Chicago OF
south America, and Personal Obser-
vatiOns Among the Farmers.
WONDERFUL WHEAT REGIONS
GRAIN GROWING IN THE PARANA
VALLEY AND IN PATAGONIA.
Locusts That Sometimes Dcvour Ev-
erytbing and Stop Railway Trains
Future of the Argentine.

copyrighted. 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter)
ROSARIO Nov. 2.-Rosario is the Chicago
of South America. Tt is the chief wheat
market of the Argentine Republic. 1t ships
thousands of tons of wheat, corn and lin
seed every week, and within a short time
after this letter is published hundreds of
ocean steamers will be anchored under its
bluffs loading this years crop for Europe
Rosario is situated on the Parana river
about two hundred miles by land from
Buenos Ayres. 1t is three hundred miles by
water from that city, and about as far in
land from the Atlantic ocean as Pittsburg
Ocean steamers sail for two hundred miles
up the Rio de la Plata past Buenos Ayres
into the mouth of the Parana, and then for
about three hundred miles up the river to
Rosario. The Parana at this point is a
mighty stream 1t has many islands, and it
is very wide. It's channel is so deep that
steamers drawing sixteen feet can reach
Rosario at any time of the year, and they
come here from all parts of the world for
grain.
Rosario itself is one of the thriving towns
of tho Argentine. It was founded about 175
years ago, but wheat raising in the Argen-
tine gave it a great boom, and within the
last ten years it has almost trebled its pop
ulation. 1t has now about 10000 people 1t
is well built. the streets crossing one an
other at right angles. 1t has good hotels
daily newspapers, electric lights, telephones
and banks. 1t does a big wholesale and re-
tail business but the most of it's money
comes from wheat.
The warehouses are along the river, and
the wheat is, venture taken from the cars
to the steamers more cheapy at Rosario
than at any other point in the world. The
land about here is deep alluvial soil which
has been carried down from the mountains
by the streams of the Rio de la PlRta sys-
tenn. Through this soil the Parana has cut
it's channel to such a depth that the bluffs
upon which the city stands are at least
seventy feet high. They are precipitous,
and Rosario is built clear to their edges, so
that the warehouses are higher than the
masts of the steamers floating on the river.
All along the banks of the river ehouses
have been built TheZ are made of gray
galvanized IRON They have railroad tracks
running between them and the edge of the
bluff, and much of the wheat which is car
ried in on the cars is transferred to the
ships without going into the warehouses.
The transfer is made. by gravity Each
shipping company has a long chute running
from the edge of the bluff and often from
the warehouse itself, down into the river.
These chutes are made in sections, and are
so arranged that they form a trough run
ming from the bluff right into the holds of
the steamers. Some of the chutes are sec
tions of iron which can be hung on wire
cables, making an iron chute from the hold
to the warehouse, so arranged that it can
be heightened shortened at will.
The wheat is bagged on the farm. The
cars carry it to the edge Of the bluff, and
Italian laborers take the bags and pitch
them into the chutes. AS soon as a bag
touches the chute it begins to descend and
it fairly gallops down the inclined trough
into the steamer. The bags fly down one
after the other at the rate of several to the
minute, and as you look a them they make
you think of army of galloping mice and
you remember the horde which attacked
the cruel Archbishop Hattie in his island in
the Rhine
POOR RAILROAD FACILITIES.
At harvest time the wheat becomes con-
gested at Rosario The railroads have more
than they can do to carry the crop, and
almost all other traffic has to be suspended
There are not enough cars for the business
There is here no such system Of interchange
of cars as we have in the United States
One company's cars cannot go over the
tracks of other companies. The result is
that the wheat is piled up i'm bags at the
stations and left there until it can be
shipped. / saw such piles in different parts
of the Argentine. AS yet there are compar-
atively few elevators and the caring for the
wheat is after the most wasteful methods
There are no barns in the Argentine. The
weather is such that the stock feeds out of
doors the year around, and only the finest
blooded animals are kept under cover. Many
of the work animals not fed, but have
to rely upon what they can eat in the pas
ture fields The result is that there is no
chance for the farmer to store his wheat in
barns and he has to rely upon the railroads
for getting it to the markets. The land is
level. There are no grades to speak of and
the freight rates should be low.
believe that Argentine wheat raising is
in It's infancy Twenty years ago the wise
men said that grain could never be grown
to any extent The Argentines were then
importing millions of dollars worth of
wheat every year, and the farmers who
were pasturing stock on what are now the
principal wheat fields were eating flour
shipped from the United States and Chilli
To-day the Argentine has to a large extent
the wheat trade of South America 1t plants
millions of acres every year and it pro-
duces from thirty to eighty million bushels
a season according to the weather and TO
the invasions of the locusts. For the last
seven or eight years it has produced from
three-hfths to four-fifths of the wheat crop
of this continent, and to-day it is shipping
wheat to the different parts of South Amer
lea and 70 Europe When the Argentine has
a good crop the prices of wheat in the Etl-
rcpean markets are affected and our farm
era often get less for their wheat in con-
sequence. In the past year or so -four mills
have been springing up and the Argentine
has now more than 500 -four mills many of
which use machinery imported from the
United States. l had as fine bread for my
breakfast at Buenos Ayres as you can get at
any hotel in New York, and. as rule, the
-four used in the Argentine is as good as
any we produce A great deal of Argentine
-four is shipped to Brazil and Uruguay, and
some is being sent to Europe.
GRAIN AREA INCREASING.
The grain-producing area of the Argen-
tine increases every year. For lotig time
it was confined to the valleys OF the Parana
and Uruguay rivers. and Il was supposed