New Britain herald., 1926-09-03
ROSARIO, CHICAGO
Of south AMERICA
This Is Country's Leading Grain
Exporting Port

Washington, D. c., Sept. Up
Discussion over the problem of get
ting the American farmer more
money for his crops directs attention
10 one OF his chief competitors, Ro-
sario, Argentina.
That city has become the leading
port for grain shipments in South
America 1t now stands second only
TO Montreal in the volume Of grain
dispatched from Iorts OF the At
lantic seaboard of both North and |
South America.
Spreading Buenos Aires. the only |
metropolis over 100000 anywhere |
south OF the Equator. throws deep |
obscuring shade over Rosario.
Wheat Service Station
Rosario proclaims tat it is prem |
Ter port for Argentina's premier pro-
duct and calls itself the Chicago OF |
Argentina However, Buenos Aires |
could be divided into six Rosario's |
and there would still remain sub |
urb or so.
Its strategic position has brought |
100000 people to Rosario to Join the
$4,000 population OF fifty years ago. |
Warehouses are mounted like so
many tanks on the edge of the steep
cliff so feet above the river. Ocean
steamers come abreast and cut off
their engines. A chute takes the
place OF hose and down the chute
flows pungent grain wheat in bulk or
in bags. Rosario can fill the hold of
a 1000 ton tr' np steamer in five
hours The engines start. Two hum
dred and forty-five miles down the
river the tramp passes proud Buenos
Aires as she carves the waves on a
nonstop voyage to Liverpool or
Rome.
Rosario is hidden from the travel
ar. II one approaches the city on
steamer journey instead OF on a rail-
road run, five hours from Buenos
Aires, the very bluffs which have
contributed so much to Rosario's
prosperity screen the town. Business
Is business the wharves and ware
houses seem to say, and once up the
cliff the visitor finds the river adj
vertisement not misleading. Five
hundred thousand square miles OF
rich country is tributary to Rosario.
it Is said. SO the $4,000 residents
must be up and doing to meet the
needs of 100000 pampas people in
the Rosario sphere. The city, there
fore, is an array of offices and
homes with less of the flamboyant
architecture than is found in many
South American cities.
Inhabiting these busy streets is
cosmopolitan population. New York
may have more Irish than Dublin
and more Italians than Rome but its
majority is American. Paris is still
French. Marseilles may come nearest
duplicating Rosario's complex hum
an collection, which is itemized as
follows: French origin 20 per cent;
Uruguayan IT per cent; German 16
per cent; italian 16 per cent; Span
ish 10 per cent; and Argentine per
cent. Behind these groups come
Brazilians, English. Russians, Bel
gians and several others
The port development is conces-
sion to French company. The citys
water Is supplied by British COM
pany. A Belgian corporation sewers
electricity to the population. Gas is
under the direct control of munich
pal organization. OF the eight rail-
roads that make Rosario trans
portation center four are English,
three French, and one Argentine
owned.
Galvanized Steel and Graashoppers
Argentine wheat, which is fac
tor in determining the price of
American wheat, was shipped out OF
Rosario in recent year to the tune
of 1,217,0o0 tons which would re-
ouire about ia average size steam
ships. Wheat, however, Is only one
third OF Rosario's grain shipment
story, while corn is another third.
Looming large in the city's i'm
ports is the odd item OF galvanized
iron sheets. Argentina suffers
enormously from the grasshopper
plague and these sheets, imported
chiefly from the United States, are
her barrier against insect hordes.
Coming out of the tropical north
locusts advance south with the sum-
their ranks as they move.
Bible descriptions of locust plaques
are not overdrawn, witnesses of the
flying armies say. Most destructive
are the young grasshoppers which
crawl but do not fly. 1t is against the
crawling young that the sheet bar
riers are erected. Millions of the In
sects are turned aside into pits
where they are destroyed. Argentina
spends more than S5,000,000 annual
ly fighting grasshoppers. Its Depart
ment of Agriculture has enough
sheet to make a barrier clear !
around the world.