Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1913-03-22
LETTER FROM ARGENTINE
Former Custer Resident Sends Interesting
Letter From South America to Rela-
tives in This City.

| AsA Ne W. A. lLOoA,
Custer, So. Oak.
DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT Il presume
you will think from the tone of this let.
ter that am homesick, but this is not
so. In fact am enjoying my visit to
this country, but I want to tell you few
things about this country as have OBJ.
served them.
The Argentine has been most richly
endowed by Nature. 1t is vast coun.
try and its soil is very fertile. 1t is
level, most mopotonously level. There
Is no timber in the way Of the plow. II
a farmer has thousand acres Of land he
can have a thousand acres CT crops.
There are no stones, no stumps and no
bills, nothing to hamper his movements.
There are some small parts of the coun-
try that are so fiat that some water lays
on the land in the spring. These low
places are feeding ground for all the
varieties of wild water fowl that we have
and great many more that are natives
of this country. Some of these native
birds are very large, being as large as
the largest turkeys. The "Iguana is a
large white bird, that are quite numer-
Gus. There are prairie chickens, quail,
and other land game birds, also small
ostrich that is native of the Argentine,
and there are plenty of jack rabbits.
There are not many wild animals.
About the only animals are the "Guan-
acos." They are about the same thing
as the Llama of Bolivia. These wild
birds are not hunted to any extent, con-
sequently they are quite tame. They
are 30 tame that it would be no sport to
shoot them for one could stand in ono
place and bag enough to fill wagon
box, consequently l do not expect to do
any shooting except with my camera.
There are no roads in the Argentine.
1t seems incredible that people would
try to develop country without at once
building roads, but these people have
started here at the wrong end Of the
proposition. In our country we first de-
veloped the country, the agricultural or
timber or farming district, whichever it
might be, and that development was the
foundation for city, but here they
built the city first and used all their
money, consequently there was none
left for the development of the source
of all their wealth, the country. There
was none left to build roads.
The land that is being cultivated is all
held in large tracts, in pieces of from
10000 acres to half million acres.
This land was acquired in earlier times
at trifiing cost and was used as cattle
ranges. Since they have begun to grow
crops the land has risen in value, and
these land owners hang on to it. They
have plowed up very large tracts and
sowen wheat, oats and corn. They have
great deal of help. Labor is all by
Poems. They do not pay these poems
much, and if they get crop they coin
an immense amount of money. They
do not put one quarter of the labor on
the land that We do. The soil is very
fertile, and if they plow the ground
after fashion and SOW the seed they
are pretty nearly sure to get crop.
They use for transportation in the coun.
try large carts built very heavy. They
hitch from fifteen to twenty-five horses
to one of these and by this method draw
their grain, which is all sacked at the
farm, to the railway. They have no
elevators along the railway as we have,
so they load their grain direct in the
cars.
This is no place for North American
farmer. 1t seems to me that in order to
induce any to como here it would be
necessary to move an entire colony, SO
that they could develop their colony
somewhat to their liking, build roads
and schools and make country life here
something like it is at home.
There are two classes of people here,
rich and poor. There is no middle
ground. A man must live here either
as millionaire or a peon. They have
no respect for man that works. The
wealthy who own the farms and the
business of this country are the supsrin.
tendents only. The poems who do all
the work and produce all the wealth
live in squalor, while the wealthy spend
money lavishly. The farm owner, after
his crop and cattle are sold, goes with
his family to Europe and lives in prince.
ly fashion until time for work on the
farm again. The enhancement of the
value of the land has made many very
rich and they spend money lavishly.
The City of Buenos Aires is a great
city. 1t has population of about two
millions now. 1t has a fine water
works, l am told one of the finest
in the world. 1t has one of the fines,
harbors and dock systems in the world
1t has one street, "The Avenida"; thai
is quite up-to-date, about as wide al
State street in Chicago, and we'll paved
All their other streets are very narrow
being too narrow for traffic to pass. Il
seems very short sighted on the part O.
the founders when they had thousand.
of acres of nice level land Oh which tt
build, that they would build city with
streets only about twenty feet wide, bu
that is what they did. The Whit,
House of the Argentine here, is very