The great prosperity of Argentina has been due to the extent and
immediate availability of its agricultural resources, for its forest
wealth remains undeveloped, and its mineral resources are
comparatively scanty. Its vast treeless and stoneless plains have
needed no "improvements" to make them fit for settlement, and the soil
which covers them being of virgin richness bears crop after crop
without fertilising and with very little cultivation. Immigrants
arrive in the country without a dollar and in twenty years are owners
of estates of 5000 acres each. In no country in the world has
agricultural extension been more rapid. In twenty years the acreage
under cultivation increased 1400 per cent. The amount under
cultivation in wheat alone increased 2600 per cent. The WHEAT
PRODUCTION averages 40,000,000 bushels, which is not far short of one
fourth of the total wheat export of the United States. The production
for 1897 was 60,000,000 bushels, although the amount exported was much
less than that. The wheat product is indeed very variable, owing to
droughts and locusts, for, like Australia, Argentina is uncertain in
its rainfall. The CORN CROP is steadier, and in 1896 amounted (for
export alone) to 60,000,000 bushels. More important in the aggregate
than the direct products of the soil are the indirect products. There
are 22,000,000 CATTLE kept in Argentina, 75,000,000 SHEEP, and
4,500,000 HORSES. The total exportation of animals and animal products
amounts to $70,-000,000. Of this exportation the principal item is
WOOL, the wool-clip of Argentina being, in weight, one seventh of the
total wool-clip of the world. Unfortunately, however, Argentina wool
is very dirty, and when washed reduces to one third, while Australian
wool reduces only to two thirds or three fifths and is free from
seeds. The profit accruing to the Argentina wool-grower is thereby
lessened. But, nevertheless, wool-growing in Argentina is a very
profitable industry, and many farmers (principally Irish settlers)
have from 50,000 to 100,000 sheep each. Cattle-farming is carried on
mostly by native Argentines, and many cattle farms are stocked with as
many as 10,000 cattle and 2000 horses each. The great exports of
Argentina, therefore, after wheat and corn and wool, are HIDES and
SKINS, TALLOW, CHILLED BEEF, and MUTTON and bones. There are five
factories in Buenos Ayres engaged wholly in chilling mutton, and the
export of chilled mutton to Great Britain alone is $5,000,000 a year.
Another growing agricultural product is WINE, the yearly production
being 1,500,000 gallons. Notwithstanding Argentina's magnificent
forest areas, but little timber is exported or even manufactured for
home consumption. The other principal manufacturing industries are
carriage-, cart-, and harness-making, cigarette- and match-making,
preserving and tinning meat, brewing, flour- and corn-milling, and the
making of macaroni.