THE GRASSLAND REGION, which includes the province of Buenos Aires, the neighbouring parts of Entre Rios, Santa Fe, Cordoba, and the territory of La Pampa, and the more distant province of Corrientes, is the most important in the Republic. The land, like that of the previous region, belonged to the bed of the Pampean Sea ; in the centre and west it is generally flat, while in the north and south it tends to be undulating. The soil, which consists in great part of alluvial deposits derived from granitic and volcanic rocks, is very fertile and easily tilled. The climate is temperate, the whole region lying in summer between the isotherms of 68° F. and 80° F., and in winter between those of 46° F. and 57° F. The mean annual rainfall varies from about 15 inches in the west and south to over 45 inches in the north-east. In the vicinity of the rivers, hygrophilous grasses grow on the river alluvium, but elsewhere the Pampas grasses constitute the prevailing type of natural vegetation.
On the whole these geographical conditions are favourable to agriculture, but other factors have contributed to the development of this region. Its climate is extremely well suited to South European races ; while the Indians are few, as the products of the region were never such as to encourage a great increase in their numbers. The rivers, the natural highways of the country, converge on the estuary of La Plata, to which the best agricultural lands are contiguous, and the progress of these has been rapid with the growing demand from Europe for wheat and meat. It is not surprising, therefore, that this region, which con tains the greater part of the cultivable soil of the republic, has over two-thirds of its population and is the centre of its economic development.
Within the last fifteen years, the area under wheat has been trebled, and at the same time there has been a considerable move ment southwards of the centre of production. In 1898, Santa Fe and Cordoba produced about two-thirds of the whole crop, while in 1911 the relative production was as follows : Buenos Aires, 40 per cent. ; Cordoba, 32 per cent. ; Santa Fe, 13 per cent. ; Entre Rios, 3 per cent. ; La Pampa, 7 per cent. ; other districts, 5 per cent.
The area, within which fertility of the soil, favourable climate, and facilities for cultivation render possible the growth of wheat, is limited on the north and north-west by increasing heat and moisture, and on the west and south by decreasing precipitation. These limits have not yet been exactly determined, but in Santa Fe and Cordoba the best wheat land lies south of a line connecting the towns of Rosario and Cordoba ; while on the south and south west it seems possible to extend the cultivation of wheat to the borders of the region under consideration. No accurate data yet exist to enable a correct estimate of the potential extent of the wheat-growing lands of the Argentine to be made, but that the present area of 15,000,000 acres could easily be trebled seems beyond a doubt.
The average yield for the last ten years does not much exceed ten bushels per acre. Various circumstances tend to account for this. It is only gradually that wheat is leaving the less suitable north for the more suitable south ; great losses are occasionally sustained from prolonged droughts or locust invasions ; above all the South European is slovenly and unintelligent in his methods of agriculture, and, until he realises the necessity of deeper ploughing and more careful selection of seed, the yield per acre is likely to remain low.
Maize, which has also made considerable progress within recent years, is grown chiefly to the east of the wheat region, on the alluvial soils of the Parana, where the rainfall is heavier than further west, and cultivation easier than in the north. In 1911, the area under this crop amounted to over seven and a half million acres, of which about three-fourths were situated in the two provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. A comparatively small portion of the product is used for feeding stock, and the greater part of it is exported. Flax is grown for the sake of its seed in the same region as maize, but it does not, at the outside, occupy more than one-half of the area taken up liy that cereal. Argentina is nevertheless the leading exporter of flax seed in the world.
Improved methods in breeding and in raising cattle, the increasing demand from foreign countries for meat, and the develop ment of communications, including the use of refrigerating apparatus, have entirely altered the character of the stock-raising industry of the Argentine, and cattle are no longer reared for their hides and tallow alone. Of the 30,000,000, or thereabouts, in the Republic, more than three-fourths are found in this region, where climatic conditions allow them to live out of doors throughout the year In the north, large numbers feed upon the thick annual grass of the well-watered provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios. Elsewhere, as in the province of Buenos Aires, the carrying capacity of the land has been considerably raised, either by sowing alfalfa, the roots of which thaw moisture from the subsoil, or by steady grazing, which has the effect of greatly improving the Pampas grasses. The native cattle have also been much improved within recent years by a careful and liberal importation by the government of prize animals selected from the best of the British breeds. The pre paration for export of frozen meat and hides, and the manufacture of various extracts of beef, are among the most important pursuits based upon the stock-raising industry, but a beginning has also been made in scientific dairying, and considerable quantities of butter are exported.
Sheep-raising has recently begun to show a serious decline in this region. This is due to the fact that in the state of Buenos Aires, in which a large proportion of the Argentine sheep are found, the moister lands further north being unsuitable to them, the laying down of alfalfa, on which cattle pay better than sheep, has led to the expulsion of the latter from much of the more favoured land. At the same time, the production of mutton has become much more important than that of wool, and there has been a considerable diminution in the export of the latter commodity.