The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-29

own remarkable abilities as manager. ! He succeeded in infusing his laborers
 with an esprit de corps which assisted
 very much in making the place profit
 able. He pointed with immense pride l to man after man whom he said had been with him ever since the had taken
 charge of the estancia. Still, he saw
 clearly the faults of the system, and
 had already begun to break up the
 estancia into farms for colonists, having | let at that time about a dozen chacrae, l as he calls them. So 1t is with the | neighboring estancias. At an auction of cattle one day I overheard this con- , versation between two estancia owners:
 You have colonists, haven't you, Dash wood?' "Oh, yees, we've had them three years" ''Do you find that it pays in these bad years?" Certainly. We
 get 75 per cent, or more of the rents,
 and it Is much less work" |
 The small farmers methods of work
 produce the better results He uses the
 single sulky blow, and often crossplows
 his land after it has, lain in the furrow
 month This is fallowed by a heavy
 harrow, and the seeder, which is own
 ed by several tenants in common, or
 hired from the estancia. The thresh
 ing machines are usually itinerant, but
 often a tenant buys one and does his
 neghbors' work as well as his own. The
 small farmers greatest enemy is the
 wheat buyer, a proverbial shark, who cheats even the shrewder ones or the
 weight the quality, or the price. Tn bne case which came to Any notice, poor woman sent load of wheat to the station, and wasetold by the buyer that 1t was damp, and that he would not take it all. Finally she sold it to him for $1 paper bag QS0 pounds rather than cart it back 25 miles. That day wheat was worth about $475, and the price she received was but little more than the ordinary price of carriage.
 The tenants are largely Russians from the borders of Germany, who have emil grated to escape the military service. They are, on the whole, good class, but are inferior to the Scandinavians. Even in this foreign land they are faith full to the Greek church. There are great numbers of Welsh and Italians as well, but the latter are employed as laborers and not as tenants. The stand ard of education among them are very low, and schools are practically non existent. They take little interest in political affairs, but that is the fault of the country rather than of it's adopted sons.
 Politically, the farmer of Argentina 1as a heavy load to carry, aside from he taxation Argentina, like all South American countries, is saddled with a Appreciated currency, which is subject Q many and violent fluctuations. In he months from March to July, 1899, gold was between POS and 237, with sometimes a change of 15 cents in a
 jingle day, but was considered very table. The farmer of Argentina is very much enamored of this state of affairs, or he docs not know that all the prices t the camp store are placed high nough to make the storekeeper al- ways sure of his profit and simply to = nake little extra when gold goes up. The fall of gold produces a tremendous tagnation which every one complains f, but which the farmer pays for The gnorant tenant takes his wheat to the tation to sell it, only to be told by the uyer that gold is down and that he will ot take it any price, Rather than cart
 back again, the farmer sells it for alf or two-thirds of it's real value. And n ct the American farmer is anxious to y an inflated currency!
 This is the condition of the wheat armer of the Pampas. While the large states are not doomed to disintegra- r on," as in this country in the North N est, such disintegration is prevented 1ly by the fact that the landowner i'll not sell land to the farmer, and for = le purposes of cultivation the same suit Is obtained by leasing it in small r. Dike in The Outlook (