into the agricultural regions, take up land, and cultivate small but
increasing farms. Some are Germans and Scandinavians, but more are
French. The latter usually settle in the cities, and become small
tradesmen or servants. Large numbers of English, Scotch, and Irish
capitalists are securing estancias, and raising sheep and cattle upon a
large scale. It is estimated that ten million dollars have been invested
in this way within the last three years, and one Englishman alone has
expended a million. The usual plan, as in the United States, is to
organize companies, with headquarters in London, Glasgow, and other
large cities, and send out capable superintendents. The cattle interests
of the Argentine Republic, like those in our country, will ultimately be
controlled by a few large corporations.
The colonization plan is popular there, and so far quite successful.
Within the last five years 1,126,000 acres of land have been taken up by
colonies, representing a population of 82,000 souls, mostly Italians and
Swiss. The English and German immigrants will not colonize. The railroad
development of the country is very rapid, and lines are now being
constructed in various directions from Buenos Ayres and other commercial
centres.
The result of the internal improvements made under this policy is plain
to be seen. Within the last five years the cattle have been driven back
gradually upon the pampas, towns have sprung up, and farms have been
opened in territory that was inaccessible before the railroad
improvements began. There is a natural tendency to overbuild, as has
been the case in this country; but so far only the needs of the present
have been met, and the roads have become at once self-sustaining. The
prospective roads, however, are very numerous, and concessions for
thousands of miles have already been granted on the most liberal terms.
Two of these concessions are held by citizens of the United States.
Five years ago the Argentine Republic was importing wheat and flour from
Chili and the United States, and Uruguay only raised enough for her own
consumption. The wheat crop of Uruguay in 1878 was 2,000,000 bushels; in
1880, 2,600,000 bushels; in 1882, 3,000,000 bushels; in 1884, 4,000,000
bushels; and the increase in the corn product was equally rapid. In 1854
only 375,000 acres were under cultivation in the Argentine Republic; in
1864 the cultivated area was 506,000 acres; in 1874 it was 825,000
acres. In 1879 the boom commenced, and in 1884 there were 4,260,000
acres under cultivation--an increase of 3,435,000 acres in ten years. In
1874 there were 271,000 acres in wheat; in 1884, 1,717,000 acres--an
increase of 533 per cent. In 1874 there were 554,000 acres in other
crops; in 1884 the area jumped to 2,543,000 acres--an increase of 360
per cent. The average yield of wheat throughout the republic in 1884 was
eight and one-half bushels to the acre, and the total crop was nearly
eleven million bushels. It was in 1880 that the importation of wheat
ceased, the amount purchased of Chili that year being 11,330 bushels. It
is estimated that the area in wheat the present year is as large as
5,000,000 acres, but no official returns have been received.
Wheat and flour are not the only agricultural products exported by the
Argentine Republic. In 1884 the exports of corn were 1,160,000 bushels;
of barley, 70,000 bushels; of baled hay, 11,460,000 kilograms; of
linseed, 23,061,000 kilograms; of peanuts, 2,617,292 kilograms; of
potatoes, 100,000 bushels. The production of sugar is becoming a very
important industry, and is now almost sufficient to supply the domestic
demand, the yield last year amounting to nearly 50,000,000 pounds. The
increased area under cultivation and the improved methods of reducing
the cane will soon make sugar an article of export. There are a number
of Cuban exiles in the northern provinces and in Paraguay cultivating
sugar and tobacco on the Cuban system with marked success.
[Illustration: COUNTRY SCENE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.]
It is estimated that the extent of agricultural land in the Argentine
Republic equals six hundred thousand square miles--an area equal to
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky,
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and capable of
producing every crop in those States; and if the increase of population
continues at its present rate they will hold a population of seven
millions by the close of the century. The market which we shall first
lose by Argentine competition in breadstuffs will be Brazil, where we
now sell about $5,000,000 worth of flour annually. The Argentine
Republic will also become our rival in the West India trade, which now
absorbs most of its meat product; and we will soon feel the effect of
the cheapness of Argentine products in the European market, where
considerable beef, mutton, and grain, is now sent in exchange for
manufactured merchandise. But in pork, lard, and dairy products the
Argentinians cannot compete with us. The country does not seem to be
adapted to hog-raising, and while there is always fresh pork to be had,
the supply of bacon, hams, and lard is included in the imports. Nearly
all the cured pork comes from the United States, but most of the hams
and bacons are disguised under English trade-marks. The merchants here
say that American packers do not prepare their meats in a proper way to
get this market, and that our cured pork first goes to England, and
there receives some treatment and a particular style of wrapping which
make it salable in the River Plate country. There is some native butter
made, but none is exported, the climate not being suitable to the dairy
business. Most of the imported butter, as well as the cheese, comes from
Holland and Copenhagen. The butter is packed in one-pound tins,
hermetically sealed, and will keep any length of time if properly
handled. There is no American butter or cheese to be had there, not even
oleomargarine, an article that is unknown to the people. A comparatively
small amount of lard and butter is consumed, however, as oil is commonly
used for cooking. Most of the cooks are French and Italian, in both
private and public houses, and use the same methods they were accustomed
to in their respective countries.
The wool product of the Argentine Republic is not so valuable as that of
Australia, although larger, because it is coarser, and contains a much
greater percentage of dirt and grease. The people complain that our duty
on wool, being levied by weight, is an unjust discrimination against
their product, and in favor of the product of Australia, which is true.
The only shipments to this country are of the coarser varieties, to be
used in the manufacture of carpets, and we take annually about a million
dollars’ worth. The great bulk of the product goes to Belgium, and is
consumed in the Brussels carpet mills, the export to that country in
1883 amounting to $12,148,000. Some attempt is being made to improve the
quality of the wool by grading up the flocks with imported bucks, but
the judgment of the sheep-growers is generally against it, as the
present quality is in demand for carpet manufacture.
The sheepskins go to Germany and France, but many of the hides come to
the United States, being our largest item of import from the Argentine
Republic. The same objection that is made to improving the sheep is made
against the improvement of the breeds of cattle, as the native hides are
heavier, and command a better price than the Durhams, Herefords, and
Jerseys that have been introduced. The imported breeds yield a better
quality of beef, but a less valuable hide, leaving the profit from the
animal about the same. The number of hides exported in 1885 was less
than usual, because of the demand for stock for new ranches; and the
amount of jerked beef was smaller.
This jerked beef is the flesh of the animal cut into thin strips and
dried in the sun, a weak brine being commonly used to hasten evaporation
and arrest decay. It is packed in large bales, and sent to Brazil and
the West Indies, where it is the staple food of the slaves and the
laboring classes. We have nothing to compare with it in the United
States except the jerked buffalo meat of the Indians, which is prepared
in a similar manner. Of this product $1,710,000 worth was sent to Brazil
last year, and $1,143,000 worth to Cuba.
No attempt has ever been made by our beef-producers to compete with the
Argentine Republic and Uruguay--the only exporters of jerked beef--and
it would undoubtedly be difficult for them to do so, as the cost of the
cattle is so much greater in this country. Their transportation
facilities to the West Indies are better than ours, notwithstanding the
difference in distance, and a steamer leaves Buenos Ayres for the
Brazilian ports every day. Various endeavors to introduce jerked beef
into Europe have proved unsuccessful, but the attempt has not been
abandoned. Samples are prepared with more than ordinary care, and the
article is sold for five cents a pound, but it does not seem to be
popular.
The Argentinians are beginning to ship large quantities of fresh beef to
Europe in refrigerator ships, one or more leaving
[Illustration: JUAREZ CELMAN--PRESIDENT OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.]
Buenos Ayres every week, and the new steamers of the English and French
lines contain compartments built especially for this purpose. They do
not use ice, but have a cooling process similar to that adopted on
transatlantic steamers. Companies are already formed to slaughter and
ship beef in this way, and the business is growing so rapidly that it
will soon be felt by our exporters. The whole carcass is shipped, and
only choice beef is selected. They cannot now compete with us in
quality, but their cattle are so much cheaper, and are being graded up
by the introduction of improved stock from England. Their cattle are not
sold by weight, but by the head, being graded according to size and
condition, prime steers bringing only fourteen or fifteen dollars, the
next quality twelve dollars, and the poorest ones ten dollars per head.
Within a radius of fifty miles from Buenos Ayres are ranches larger than
any in Texas, and cattle can be driven almost on the steamers in the
harbor, so that the cost of transportation and shrinkage is merely
nominal, while our ranches are from two to four thousand miles from the
sea.
Fat steers can be set down at the slaughter-houses, not fifty miles from
the harbor of Buenos Ayres, at a maximum price of fifteen dollars a
head, and they are high now because of the demand for cattle to stock
new ranches. The cost of transportation from the ranches in the
Argentine Republic to Covent Garden market in London is never greater,
and often less, than from Kansas City to New York; so that our
producers, in addition to the difference in the price of beef, will have
the freight from New York to Liverpool against them.
Sheep are also killed and frozen for exportation to Europe, a single
_saldero_ or slaughter-house, at Campana, fifty miles from Buenos Ayres,
shipping five hundred carcasses daily. They are hung for an hour after
killing, and then removed to a chilling-room, where the temperature is
slightly above the freezing-point; from this they are taken to a still
colder chamber, where they are left until as hard as stone. Then they
are packed in canvas bags, and sent to the steamer in refrigerator cans.
Live sheep in condition for killing are worth only three or four dollars
for the best quality, and ordinary mutton is sold in the city market for
seven cents a pound. In 1879 we exported ninety million pounds of
dressed beef. In 1884 this total had been nearly doubled, with a fair
prospect of continued increase. In 1884 the Argentine Republic exported
sixty-five million pounds of dressed beef, with an increase quite as
rapid as ours. In 1884 there were 49,000,000 head of cattle in the
United States, and 30,000,000 in the Argentine Republic. The single
province of Buenos Ayres has just twice as many cattle as Texas, and as
many as Texas and all the territories of the United States combined.
Then across the River Plata is the little republic of Uruguay, about as
large as Iowa, with 500,000 people and 8,000,000 cattle, and presenting
about the same ratio of increase.
The cattlemen of the Argentine Republic and Uruguay are going into the
business of canning meats, and will soon compete with us in that line.
It is not generally known that Liebig’s extract of beef, so largely used
in hospitals as a tonic, is made in Uruguay, for the jars in which the
tonic reaches the market bear trademarks to make it appear to come from
England. The extract was invented by Dr. Liebig, the celebrated chemist,
nearly half a century ago, but its process passed into the hands of an
English company in 1866, which then removed the establishment from
Antwerp to Fray Bentos, Uruguay. This company is now erecting buildings
for the purpose of canning meats, and have Chicago men in charge of the
work.
Although horses are very cheap, there is a good deal of profit in
raising them, and the stock is being improved very rapidly by the
introduction of thorough-bred English stallions. The native Argentine
horse is almost the counterpart of the North American broncho, tough,
swift, and enduring, and when crossed with better blood loses none of
his good qualities, but improves in size and appearance. They are
usually kept in droves of five hundred, and run wild the year round, the
stallions being turned loose among them at the proper season--about one
to twenty mares. When the colts are two years old they are taken from
the drove and kept separate until three or four years old, when the
fillies are turned back with the mares, and the stallions broken for
service. Mares are never broken, but run wild on the range from the time
they are foaled until they are driven to the saldero at the age of
twelve or fifteen years. A three-year-old mare is worth seven or eight
dollars for breeding purposes--not as much as a heifer--while a
fifteen-year-old brings three or four dollars at the saldero. Her hide
is shipped to Europe, her bones turned into bone ash, and her hoofs sent
to the glue factory.
The best kind of an improved saddle-horse, such as would bring two
hundred and fifty or three hundred dollars in the States, can be bought
in the Argentine Republic for seventy-five dollars, fine carriage-horses
for fifty dollars each, and work-horses for twenty or twenty-five
dollars. The street-car companies pay about ten dollars a head for their
stock. Everybody rides; even the old adage about a beggar on horseback
is realized there.
There is a curious story about an island in the River Plata which was a
horse ranch in early Spanish times. The animals became so numerous that
there was not grass enough to feed them, and no demand for their export.
The owners decided to reduce their stock in a barbarous way, and when
the grass was dry they set fire to it. Every horse on the island was
burned to death except those that ran into the river and were drowned.
The stench was so great that navigation was almost entirely suspended on
the river. The result of this method of reducing stock was a little more
complete than the owners anticipated, so when the grass grew up again
they had to buy stallions and mares and start anew. Singularly enough,
every animal placed on the island since that fire has died of a
mysterious disease, and no colt has been foaled there for one hundred
and fifty years. Various breeds of stock have been tried, but never a
hoof has left the island alive. Three months there finishes them. The
island was unoccupied for fifty or sixty years, but is now used as a
cattle ranch, and horned stock do not appear to be subject to the
mysterious malady.
MONTEVIDEO.
THE CAPITAL OF URUGUAY.
Soon after General Garfield became President, an ex-member of Congress,
since the governor of a western State, came into a correspondent’s
office in Washington, and sitting down with a discouraged and disgusted
air, asked, “Where in Tophet is Uruguay? I have been offered the honor
of representing the United States in that country, and before I accept I
would like to find out where it is.”
[Illustration: THE CITY OF MONTEVIDEO, LOOKING TOWARDS THE HARBOR.]
Not three out of four men in the Congress of the United States could
have answered the question correctly; and if the embryonic diplomatist
had entered into an inquiry about the resources of the country, and the
number and character of the people, he could not have found a man in our
National Legislature, on the Supreme Bench, or in the Cabinet, who could
have given him the information correctly, and he might have sought in
vain for it in our modern school geographies. Yet Uruguay is one of the
most enterprising, progressive, and prosperous nations on this
hemisphere, growing faster in proportion to its area and population than
the United States, and is beginning to be a formidable competitor of
ours in the provision markets of Europe.
The country which appears on the map as Uruguay is known in South
America as “the Banda Oriental,” with a strong accent upon the last
syllable, which, being interpreted, means “the Eastern Strip,” as it was
once a part of the Argentine Republic, which in those days was known as
“the Banda Occidental.” Uruguay is the old Indian name, and the legal
one, being recognized by the Constitution. The inhabitants are known as
“Orientals,” with a strong accent on the “tals.” Uruguay is the smallest
independent State in South America, and in its agricultural and pastoral
resources the richest, with undiscovered possibilities in the mineral
way. In the good old colony times the Viceroy of Spain and the Jesuits
used to get a great deal of gold and silver--placer washings--from the
interior of Uruguay, but during the long struggle for independence, and
the sixty years of revolution that followed, the operation of the mines
was suspended, and their localities forgotten or obliterated by the
people, who were mercilessly robbed of the wealth they gathered in that
way. They found it economical to do nothing, for as fast as they
accumulated a few dollars they were robbed of it, and those who were
suspected of knowing where the gold and silver came from were persecuted
until they disclosed the secret, or else died with it concealed in their
breasts.
No country ever suffered more from war than Uruguay, as for almost a
hundred years a struggle of arms, under one excuse or another, has been
going on within her borders, and until the present despotism--which
makes only a mask of the nominal democracy it pretends--came into power,
there was a change of government, or an attempt to secure one, under
almost every new moon. Although Uruguay is as much of an absolute
monarchy to-day as exists on the face of the earth, her people have
peace and prosperity, her development is being hastened by large works
of internal improvement, her population is increasing rapidly, her
commerce is assuming immense proportions, and she is making more rapid
strides towards greatness than any other country in South America,
except her neighbor across the River Plate. With a republican form of
government guaranteed by the constitution, with civil and religious
freedom as the foundation-stone of the nation, the will of the President
has been usually as absolute as was that of the ex-King Thebaw.
[Illustration: HARBOR OF MONTEVIDEO.]
Maximo Santos, who was for many years to Uruguay what Guzman Blanco has
been to Venezuela, and Rufino Barrios to Guatemala--its nominal
President, but its _de facto_ dictator--was a man of immense energy,
broad views, and an ambition to lift his nation to the standard of
modern civilization. Although an autocrat, to a certain degree he was a
wise one, and as long as a citizen did not interfere with his management
of the Government, nor criticise with too great freedom his disbursement
of the public revenues, Santos gave him every encouragement and all
reasonable concessions. His methods were rude, cruel, and arbitrary; his
ministers were the instruments of his will, the Congress simply one of
the fingers of his right hand, and the army his weapon of offence and
defence, without regard to the Constitution, the laws, or the rights of
the people, while the courts were puppets to perform at his pleasure.
Occasionally he went through the form of holding an election, but the
soldiers always had charge of the polls and counted the votes. No
candidates but those favored of the President were ever elected in
Uruguay, and whenever any public expression was called for by him the
leaders of public opinion were always careful to discover his
preferences and anticipate them. If a true and complete history of his
administration, and his military career preceding his assumption of the
Presidency, could be written, it would be as remarkable a document as
the events of the nineteenth century in any land could justify.
Santos was what they call “a barrack dog.” That is, his father was a
soldier, his mother a rabona--one of that class of homeless women who
are encouraged by the Government to follow the army--and he was born in
a barracks. From birth until he was able to bear arms he was kicked
about without care or education, generally housed and fed in a military
garrison or camp. He entered the army as a private when not more than
fourteen or fifteen years of age, and within twenty years, by reason of
his brains and force of character, became its commander-in-chief. It was
a short step to a dictatorship, during one of the revolutions that were
epidemic in Uruguay, and then after a form of an election
[Illustration: MAXIMO SANTOS.
(President of Uruguay from March 1, 1882, to November, 1886.)]
he was declared “constitutional” President. When he came into power
Uruguay was going backward, and had been for several years; the country
was gradually becoming depopulated, property was greatly depreciated in
value, everybody was living from hand to mouth, and there was no
commerce of consequence. Although Santos was a brutal tyrant, the
magnificent results of his progressive policy are to be seen on every
hand, and he should be judged accordingly. The results he accomplished
should be permitted to obscure his methods. It was in 1887 that Santos
was finally overthrown, and to “let him down easy,” as the saying is,
his successor in the Presidency gave him credentials as an Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to all the courts of Europe,
where he has since remained. Twice he has attempted to return to
Montevideo, and once got as far as the harbor, but was not permitted to
land. After spending a few months in Buenos Ayres, he became convinced
that his power was broken, and he returned to Europe to remain the rest
of his days and draw a salary or pension that is paid him by the
Government as the price of his absence.
The President of Uruguay in 1889 is Gen. Maximo Tajes, a man of
education, culture, and liberal tendencies, but not so much of an
autocrat as Santos.
The country is enjoying great prosperity and much-needed peace.
Immigration is very large and increasing, the newcomers being mostly
from Italy and the Basque provinces of Spain--a frugal, industrious, and
law-abiding people. They bring a good deal of property with them; in
fact, according to the statistics during the last ten years, only 1335
people were lodged and fed at the expense of the Government even for a
day. There are some German, Swedish, and Swiss colonies which are small
but immensely prosperous; but the Government has not encouraged the
formation of colonies, preferring individual immigrants.