The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-01
1MISTUR EDDITUR: When I de- . sided that the nasionel guvvermint
 ~ would have to struggle along for

or the Parana basin. Upon the north are the wheat and cattle lands of Bra gil, and on the west is the Argentine ness that lies between the Uruguay and Parana rivers. On the east and south is the ocean, with the rich province of Buenos Aires on the opposite side of the Rio de la Plata The country is al- most rectangular and three sides of 1t are bordered by water. It has TOO or 800 miles of navigable waterways and It's character Is such that it can be grid ironed with railroads at a low cost It has now 1500 miles and hundreds more are to be built.
 The country is rolling. It is very much like Illinois or Indiana, and its rivers and streams cover 1t with network like the veins of leaf. There are very few swamps. The land is well drained and the rainfall is just about right for corn and wheat and the raising of grass. Moreover, the climate Is one suited to white men. It is much like that of our southern states without the cold winters. The grass keeps green all the year round and the cattle and sheep are turned out to chew for themselves. There is not a barn in the whole country. and you may travel hundreds of miles and not see . haystack or feeding trough
 And still there are focks and herds everywehre. The country has at least S,o0o00O cattle sand 26,O0O,00o sheep. There are so many that if they were all brought together and equally di- vided among the people each family would have 30 cattle and 250 sheep, and leave a lot of animals over for good measure. The stock is not as fine as that of the Argentine, but the country has been importing fine rams for years and it now brings In as many as 2Ooo pedigreed sheep in one year. Of late it has been importing fine bulls and a steady improvement of the stock is now going on. The chief business of the country Is pastorial. Out of 42,00o.- 900 acres of land there are less than 7C0,O00 in wheat, and the corn crop covers only one-half million acres. The chief cereals are wheat corn, oats and linseed, but the farming is not we'll
 
 low that of our country Uruguay raises some fruit, and 1t is now shIp- ping grapes and wine to the Argentine.
 And just here I want to put in a warning to Americans who think they can come to this region and make for tunes with little work and small capi tal This Is not a land for the poor man Of our country. The land is held Tn large blocks and the American min ster tells me that it Is worth almos. IS much as good land in the states. There has been a great imitation of prices, both here and in Argentina in he past few years, and good lands that Ire accessible to the railroads are bringing as much as $50 per acre. The imes are hard and the lands will prob bly slump. but one would need a big ract to be equal to his neighbors, ard le would be mighty lonesome if he were an American who did not speak Spanish and had to flock by himself,
 At present there are practically no mall holdings. Something like 48,000 nen own all the lands of the country nd their properties are on the aver .ge almost 1000 acres each. Many of hem have tens of thousands of acres nd some have 50,000 and more. The government Is trying to buy lands and olonize them. It has already sold , thousands of acres and some foreign ountries are purchasing lands on which