New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-16

sion, is the Campfire hundreds of square
miles OF farms. The alfalfa looked good, so
did the wheat, and so did the cattle. We fol-
lowed excessive rains and there was good
deal OF standing water on the ground, but the
rains have not hit the crops appreciably. In
one section we passed several miles OF grain
fields eaten bare by the grasshoppers, and the
stories OF the Argentine estancia owners tell
OF the grasshoppers make Munchausen look
sick
when they hear the grasshoppers are COM
ing toward a certain locality they call everyone
out to fight them" one train acquaintance said,
and every one comes or gets in trouble. They
build bitches, and lead the grasshoppers into
pits six feet square and deep, and I've seen one
OF those pits fill in half an hour. Then they
drench the pit in kerosene and burn em, but it
never seems to do much good. II they can
catch EN- during the eighteen days when they
have to hop and can't fly they're easier to stop,
but if they start fyng-good night"
The grasshoppers average two and one-haf
inches to three and one-half in length, as we
found when the train stopped They eat every
living thing but the stalk of the grain, and don't
OBJECT 10 ClOullNB. WIN POPuioHOh OF
sparsely distributed they are a grave menace,
and the government, while willing to fight
them, has not the means at present to meet the
huge estimates for finish fight.
THE ALFALFA COUNTRY WITH NON
INOCULATED SOIL.
We saw one narrow strip Of the Argentine
plain, and that strip was Al farming country.
The fattening country where the cattle are
sent before they proceed to the frigorihco, or
slaughter house is on the delta between the
great rivers 10 the northeast. I'VE count on
three or four crops Of alfalfa year"-this
from an estancia manager southwest OF Buenos
Ayres-"and we don't have to inoculate the
soil or replant for eight or nine years" The
soil is disgustngly adaptable to the growth OF
cattle food; for many years. North American
farmers inocuated their fields for alfalfa with
a covering OF common Argentine dirt.
The capital of it ALL politically and indus
trially, is this city 1t is the first real city we
have found. When the crops suffer Buenos
Ayres suffers for here are one-siXth OF all the
people in the republic, here all the money is
spent, and through here the crops find their
markets. And now, after two bad crop years,
and which gave the city the most violent
attack OF financial jimmies any money market
ever suffered Buenos Ayres is watching this
autumn's crop ripen with all the cherishng
Of football coach two days before the
big game. After it is harvested, and the col
lections are made, Buenos Ayres will 60 out
and get itself new coat Of bright red paint
INTO BUENOS AYRES. A CITY WHICH JUST
NOW Is SHABBY GAY
Just now it IS shabby-gay We rode up from
the station 20 the Savoy Hotel in private car
which with hundreds OF others, hard times have
pressed into taxi service Half mile along the
river front, under the shadow OF four five and
six story buildings, and then a mile up the Ave
nida de Mayo sounds Irish, but isn'tl, or main
street and past the house of Congress, which is
little more glorious than a state capitol, and
a little less than the Washington edihce. Sub
way stations, sidewalk cafes, of trees
sheltering them, and lamppost islands in mid
street looked metropolitan, and plenty Of electric
lights, and automobiles clipping up and down on