The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-09-08

small scale without much capital
though, as everywhere else, money
makes money!" and large returns can
not be expected without the invest
! ment of considerable good hard cash.
In the first place you must purchase
land, and if not particular as to local
ity, you may get it as low as twenty
cents the acre, even less. Then your
estate should be enclosed with an
alambrado or fence of five wires at
tached to posts about five feet high.
This costs six hundred pesos per
league IA peso is the local dollar, worth
about seventy-five cents of United
States money, but if cash is short and
the tract large that expense may be
deferred for a time Stocking the
estancia is the more important part of
it, and although not allowed to put on
more than 260 head to the square mile,
you may begin with as few as you like
and wait for the increase. What is the
cost of stocking cattle farm in Para
quay? That is a question l am fire.
quently asked, and the answer depends
upon circumstances. If you are living
in the United States and propose COM
ing to this country, you will find that
the greatest item of expense is the long
journey, especially if you bring fam
lily, which costs quite enough to set you
up in moderate business nearer home.
If, however, you are on the spot, few
hundred dollars, accompanied with a
due amount of diligence and common
sense, will soon make a nabob of you.
Young cattle may be bought in Argen-
tina and transported to Paraguay by
river steamers at about thirteen dollars
per head when arrived; but if you are
as superstitious about that unlucky
number as the writer, you will prefer
to pay say S13.25.
The average price of cattle in these
parts bought al corte, that is without
seiection) is ten pesos, or about eight
dollars in our money. In certain local
tiles they are even cheaper, sometimes
down to four pesos per head.
No special knowledge of the business
is required, nor exceptional care, for
nature is both kind and generous here,
and nearly everything may be safely
left to her The herds will multiply in
natural course and the owner has little
to do about it beyond collecting his
cattle once year for counting, to
brand the young ones with his own
mark and select those that he wishes
to sell. AS to profit: after making due
allowances for losses and reserving a
sufficient number to keep up the stock,
it is generally computed that about Is
per cent. of the whole herd can be an
nualiy sold. This is the proportion in
Argentina also; but localities differ.
In Rio Grande de Sui it averages
twelve per cent, and in Parana only
five per cent. In this country para
quay it is customary to sell only the
3-year-old bullocks and cows that have
price of young bullocks sold on the
estancia is twenty pesos-say IS Ameri-
can dollarS-and the same animals
delivered at the slaughter-house in
Asuncion would command eight or ten
dollars more apiece. If taken to Fray
Bentos, in Uruguay, where the great
Leibig factory is situated, they would
bring in gold piasters an equivalent for
nineteen pesos, or more, according to
| the state of the market. How the
| figures above named compare with
those in the United States | am IN
able to say, never having given the sub
| ject attention in Goods country"
| During the last quarter-century es-
tancia after estancia and district after
district has passed into the hands of
sheep farmers, who are mainly British
settlers, now the largest landowners of
the country. OF late years the ad-
vance of sheep farming has been stead
| lily driving back the cattle to greater
distances and to the coarser grasses of
the western plains; and the latter, eat
ing down the coarser heritage, fits the
land for the reception of sheep SO that
some day it is likely the whole campo
will be one vast sheep walk, like the
Falkland Islands The value of Para
quay sheep has increased ten-fold by
the introduction of Spanish merino
and Saxony breeds, with the original
Pampa and Creole sheep. A few years
ago seven shillings per head was con-
sidered good price for flock of
sheep, which now sell at ten shillings
each; and, as may be readily inferred,
with the rapid increase in number
equivalent to a compound interest of
thirty-five per cent per annum-added
to the augmentation in value of both
sheep and land, considerable fortunes
>have grown from very small beginnings
with little trouble and almost no out
lay on the part of the owners. In lieu
of payment of cash to the shepherds,
the owners freely give focks on halves
| bof 10 no If no iporaaca oDd hol kl,o