The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-14
FRESH MEAT FOR THE EUROPEAN SOLDIERS

eostliest beef upon record In addition were the autioneer's charges of more than 5000 in gold On the Pereyra farm I saw 5000 cows worth from several hundred to several thousand dollars apiece, and a bull for which the owner was offered s15,00O not long ago and refused It. On the same day that Amefi- GUS was sold another bull brought s2o,- 900, and third one sold for s1s,000. These prices make ones eyes bulge. but when it Is remembered that some of the big estancerios here own as many as 100000 cattle and sell every year as many as 10000 steers it will be seen that the addition of a hundred pounds or so to the weight of a steer means a great profit. This increase Is brought about by good breeding.
 There are cattle shows held here ev- cry year and it is not uncommon to have 1000 cattle and from 800 to 1000 sheep on exhibit. A fat stock sale oft en brings in a great deal of money. Certain ones have brought in as much as s1,000,00o. and net sales of s500.- 900 are common The pedigrees of the famous bulls are known everywhere and every man keeps his stock book and stock register At the sales the most popular cattle are the Shorthorns. and next to them the Herefords. At a recent sale at Palermo. where the prices were especially low. the best bull. known as Beauty's Stamp. brought only s5500. while a number of other bulls brought from s2Oo0 to s500o. The act a ha total sales of Hereford bulls netted altogether only s6s.OOO. The prices give some idea of the financial stringency caused by the war. Among the bidders were men who have bulls on their estancias which cost s1O.ooo and up- ward. One was Manuel Cobo. who im- ported Rufus at cost of $15,000, and who has sold bulls from his estate a. prices of over s10.000. There were pres ent also the Pereyras, who sold Amer icus at s35.oOO. Senor Cobo owns 800 Shorthorn pedigreed cattle and he has won 800 different prizes at the stock shows.
 The importations of foreign stock are rapidly raising the standard of Argentine beef. Twenty years ago 50 per cent of the cattle here were native bred. They were of the class known as Criollas, the offspring of the Span ish stock, which was deterioratcd by inbreeding. At present only about per cent of the stock is native bred and 92 per cent is more or less for% eign bred The first Shorthorn bull. Tarquin, was brought in more than 50
 
 Shorthorns. bulls and cows. imported from England nine years later were the bull Defiance and the COW Coral. which formed the foundation of the herd of Leonardo Pereyra. Today there are good cattle everywhere, and a great demand has sprung up for the pure bred Shorthorns of the United States. l am told that American bulls which will sell for not more than ssO00 can be easily disposed Of
 AS to the future meat supply of Ar gentina, I have had talks during my stay here with Dr. Don Abel Bengoioea, the president of the Rural society, and also with its manager, Senor 0dolfo Aimerich They are both enthusiastic as to the prospects and have given me some of the figures l have used In this letter. I asked Senor Almerich as to the number of cattle Argentina could feed. He replied:
 we have about 5O0,0O0, ,000 acres ct good land in our country. Taking out half to be used for grain raising, dI- versified farming, and as the sites Of cities, towns and factories, we have 250,000,000 acres remaining. If this is properly handled it will easily support O. t1a Wb ia a q many as we have now. This estimate is not at all extravagant considering the undeveloped resources of the republic and with intensive cultivation the number might be materially incl eased This is especially so of the lands O. ducing alfalfa. We have already more than 13,000,000 acres under that crop. and there are many times as much that might be so used"