The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-25
BUENOS AYRES AIMS
TO AID FARMERS
Bond Issue Of Sixty Million
Pesos Proposed by Cover
nor of Province.
TO DIVIDE THE LAND
Liberal Credit for Machinery
Also to Be Extended I'm
der Plan.

The Governor of the province of Bue-
nos Ayres recently submitted to the
Legislature a bill for promoting the ag-
ricultural and cattle raising industries
The bill Is Of utmost Importance as a
piece OF social legislation anu develop
ment OF the Argentine foreign trade.
According TO the plan the state would
huy farming lands and sell them in ade-
quate lots to small farmers on long term
payment basis. These farmers, further
more, would be given long term credit
for obtaining cattle, machinery and sup
plies.
The bill contains the following pro-
visions
1.-THE Government OF the state OF
Buenos Ayres is hereby empowered to
| issue bonds up TO 6o,000,000 pesos
(slightly more than 25,200,000) at
per cent. interest and 1 per cent. OF
accumulative payment.
These bonds, to be known as Bonos de
| fomento agropecuario (farm promotion
bonds), will be assigned only to the
purpose OF furthering farm production
by the following means:
"(a) Buying good farming lands to
be sold, according to their location, in
| lots of from 25 to 100 hectares Cone
| hectare is equivalent to 2.471 acres) to
years term for payment, and will devote
| themselves, aided by their families, to
exploiting the land for farm and cattle
| raising.
"(b) Buying cattle, machinery, i'm
PIGMENTS, seeds and building materials
for renting or selling the same to the
farm workers. In the latter case the
sale will be on long term basis.
"(c) Establishing consumers coopera-
/ lrtA
ganizing cooperative selling and opening
savings banks establishing all kinds Of
industries that utilize the raw mate
rails furnished by the farm and the
| ranch, and using to that end manufac-
turing machinery, farming implements,
apparatus for the conservation of farm
products and grain elevators. The state
will contribute so per cent. OF the neces-
sary capital for starting these indus
| tries"
The author of the bill. Gov. Crotto.
supporting the plan, states that II aims
to form a stable rural class which will
| counteract the effect of troublesome
| economic factors. Such class will take
the place of the chacareros or farm
workers or small farmers who. having
no land OF their own or lacking the
means TO develop their farms, wander
through the vast plains without concen-
trating their efforts.
Gov. Crotto says that the usual lease
OF lands favors solely the owner and
permits nothing but a precarious agri-
culture which yields only a small prod
uce at the cost of heavy expenditure
and which leaves the fields Impoverished
and dirty. This nomad farming is a
means of propagating plaques and ex'
hausting the land. Our capital" hi
says. "is In the land with which the ma
ton has a current account. Each har'
vest which is taken out is like a check
drawn against this account, the balance
OF which tends to decrease in the course
of years"
Ownership of the Land.
He considered 1t essential that the
| farmer own his land, because nothing but
ownership of the soil is capable OF stimu-
lating In him that desire Of improving
the individual patrimony the aggregate
OF which forms the collective patrimony
Instead Of granting the settler a credit
in money to work the bare land the Gov
eminent would give fenced land with a
house, storeroom, well. watering place for
the cattle, silo or granary, &c. that Is
all the requirements for immediate ex-
ploitation OF the soil. They are as Inn
portaut for the exploitation as is the
land itself.
Through this plan an enormous saving
OF time and money would be attained, in
the opinion of Gov. Crotto, who estimate;
that tho expenses required to build q
farms house, &C.. would represent 40 per
cent. more IL the settler had to make
them individually without the support OF
the Government. An equipped farm
means immediate production.
The settler also needs credit for buy
ing implements, seeds and cattle, and the
Government would help him along this
line under the most liberal conditions
because on the increased production de-
Ponds the Governments own welfare.
II the plan is carried into operation Il
will mean a huge increase in the Argen-
tine importation of farm implements and
machinery, as we'll as other kinds OF In
dustrial machinery. Argentina has al.
ways bought farm machinery from the
United States. and the development OF Its
basic industries will increase the de-
mand for American machinery.