The farmer and mechanic., 1915-06-01
On The Mighty Panama
Continued From Page One.)

hunger. figuring on the number of
bites they may eat for dinner at night
to be sure they may have breakfast
next morning. The wheat lands OF
Russia might be improved by good
farming, but they are often the scenes
Of terrible famine. And last but not
least. we have the basin of the MIS-
sissippi which is now so thlckly set
tied that we have TO import meat from
abroad.
The basin Of the Parana is bigger
than that Of the Mississippi, and IT is
a question whether it has not more
cultiyable territory. 1t is more than
1000 miles long, and in places 1T
reaches from the Andes clear out 70
the ocean All the way up the Parana
and Paraguay to where l am now, the
country is one vast plain. Until l
reached the Paraguay river l saw no
woods to speak of. and was told that
the plains extended back on both sides
for hundreds Of miles. With the eX-
ception of Uruguay, the plains are the
only parts Of the basin that have been
developed, and they still are on the
edge of their beginning. Nevertheless
they raise tens of millions Of cattle,
scores of millions Of sheep, and they
are now exporting more wheat and
corn than any other part of the globe.
This vast basin is in the shape of
horseshoe, with the Parana flowing
from the toe down through the center.
The Andes and the strip Of highlands
that crosses Brazil form the back and
upper end of the shoe while it is
bound on the south by the plains OF
Patagonia. The most of the basin has
been built up by the rivers and their
silt has made it one of the most fer
tile lands of the globe.
Moreover the climate is fit for white
men. The greater part of the basin is
as healthy as any part Of the MiSsis-
sippi valley, the seasons being those Of
the Mississippi reversed. We go south
in the winter to get warm. These
people go north. A greater part of the
country is in the temperate zone, and
IL may be compared to the United
States Paraguay is like Louisiana or
Florida and the northern part of Ar
gentina has sugar and Aotton planta-
tions. Further south the climate is as
temperate as that of our middle
statoH, and in the far sotth the win
ters compare with our SemideSert
northwest. Three-fourths of Para
quay. through which / am now steam
ing, is in the temperate zone. The eli
mate is like that of southern Califor-
MIA and the orange orchards are to be
seen everywhere.
ing pictures of my ride up the Parana
river. The stream is like an island
studded sea moving on slowly down
toward the ocean. The channels are
SO wide that they have waves like the
waters of a lake, and the sun dances
over a golden eXpanse of rising and
falling pillows.
The channel winds this way and
that. Now it runs straight north and
south, and now almost east and west
Within the last few years the river has
been carefully surveyed and there are
now light bouys which mark the route
of the steamers The channel is abou
twelve feet deep all the way from
BuenoS Aires to Paraguay, and th'
volume of the river is next to that o
the Amazon among the great Stream m
of the globe. DR.. Elmer Corthell, tn
well known American engineer, VIII
assisted Capt. James 3. Eads in MAX
ing the Mississippi jetties and VIII
was engaged on the port works a
Buenos Aires, estimates that the an
nual flow of the Parana is double tha
of the Ganges, four times that of tn
Danube and five times that of tn
Nile. 1t is so per cent larger tina
the flow of the Mississippi, and thre
times as great as the volume of tn
St. Lawrence. In other words all G
the water that annually pours dow
over Niagara Fails through the down
spout of the great lakes and out to tn
ocean is only one-third as large a
that which flows through the Paran
system, this great downspout of tn
Andes. This system also has create
falls than Niagara. in those of IguaZ
on the Alto-Parana. The Iguazu Fal
are higher than Niagara, and they al
twice as wide. / shall write again
them.
The transportation of the Parana
at it's beginning. So far it has bee
controlled by one man and his famil
This is the MihanovitcheS, an organ
Zation or company which has 800 We
sells and employs something like 6.61
hands. 1t has capital of s 5000, 90
and it carries more than four-fifths
the traffic of this great river syster
1t has vessels not only upon the r
de Ia Plata and the Parana, but al
upon the Alto-Parana and the Pa
quay, as fas as AsunciOn.