One of the great handicaps of the ranchers is that their isolation and the infrequency of sales make cooperation difficult and tend to make the ranchers less wide awake, up-to-date, well educated, and progressive than dairymen. Nevertheless cooperation offers one of the most hopeful prospects of progress among cattle and sheep ranchers.
The Cattle Ranchers of Argentina.—Argentina furnishes a particu larly interesting illustration of the ranching industry. There, as in the United States, great commercial cities on the Atlantic Coast, rich grassy plains farther west, then dry plains, and finally lofty mountains form a series of north and south belts or curved zones varying greatly in density of population, in occupations, and in the development of transportation. Hence, an agricultural zone around Buenos Aires merges into a cattle zone, which in turn gradually passes into a sheep zone that supplies mutton and wool. As in the United States, the gaucho or cowboy is rapidly disappearing. Formerly he sometimes made a living by catching wild cattle descended from those that had escaped from the early ranches in eastern Argentina, and selling the hides and tallow, leaving the carcasses to rot.
Today these wasteful methods have given place to well managed estancias, as the ranches are called. In these lies the chief difference between the cattle industry in Argentina and in the United States. The estancias represent an unprogressive system of landed aristocracy which gives little chance for an independent farmer to start on a small scale. Hence, society is divided into two distinct classes, land owners and tenants or peons. The land owner or " estanciero," uses part of his estate to support immense herds of beef cattle or sheep. The rest he turns over to " medieros " if he can secure them. The mediero is an immigrant farmer, usually Italian, who has enough money to buy his own seed and tools, but who cannot buy land. He goes halves with the proprietor on all the produce he raises, thus providing food for the estanciero's cattle men. If immigrants with some money are not avail able, the land is worked by poor newcomers, or " colonos." In such cases the proprietor takes more than half the produce. This dis courages the colono whose crops are frequently poor because of drought. Hence, he often gives up in despair and moves on. This delays the
conversion of the country into permanent farms and helps to keep it a cattle country. Nevertheless, the estancias are gradually being broken into small farms. The Argentine tendency to extravagance hastens this by causing the estancieros to run into debt, and laws are also beginning to be framed to help the small land owner.
The grazing lands of Argentina have risen in value so rapidly that the country has an unusually large number of very wealthy men, and the wealth per capita is greater than in any other South American country. At present the wealth of the estancieros aids the development of the Argentine cattle industry in two ways: (1) by improving the breeds of cattle, and (2) by making it possible to withstand the tremen dous losses arising from drought and locusts. The annual show of high-bred stock at Buenos Aires is of national and even international importance. The estancieros are so eager to improve the rangy pampas stock by breeding efficient beef and wool producers that they pay aston ishing prices for the prize-winners as sires for their herds. The best animals are usually English, for breeders in the United States do not send many animals, although the Argentinians are anxious to secure American stock. Only the wealthy ranchers can purchase at these shows. The losses from drought and from the visitations of clouds of locusts are often so severe that the small cattle owners experience great difficulty in making a living.
The rich pampas grass and the gentle topography adapted to rail roads, need only European energy and capital to produce great wealth. The modern refrigerator ship makes it possible to export forty or fifty thousand quarters of beef in one load. Competition between native freezing estab lishments and those set up by packers from the United States has caused such rivalry that Argentine beef has an enviable reputation for cleanliness. In the future, communities of cattle ranchers may grow up in places like the grassy plains oil Central Africa or north ern South America, but for the present the geographical conditions of Argentina and Uru guay make them preeminently the countries of cattle communities. In the same way Australia will probably long continue to be the greatest region for communities of sheep herders.