As for cheese, we quote only from memory; its production is practically limited by local requirements. The most important establishment in this line is that belonging to Señores A. & R. Luro, on their estate, San Pascual del Moro. Here the “moro” cheese is made, an imitation of the Roman cheese, which is consumed in large quantities by the Italian colony.
_Breweries._——Although not directly dependent upon the produce of the soil, since the country produces no hops, and, very little barley, we will nevertheless mention the industry of brewing, as one which is at present in a prosperous condition. It is undertaken by a number of limited liability companies, of which the most important, due to the initiative of M. Bemburg, is the _Brasserie Argentine de Quilmes_, a French company with a capital of £360,000, which brews about 3,960,000 gallons of the 8,360,000 gallons consumed by the nation.
Next, with a much smaller output, comes the Bieckert Company, with a capital of £362,880, and an output (in 1904) of 1,349,390 gallons; the _Cerveceria Palermo_, with a capital of £132,000, and an output of 1,264,690 gallons; the _Rio Segundo_, in the Province of Córdoba, with a capital of £80,000, and an output of 423,810 gallons; and the _Fabrica Nacional de Cerveza_, with a capital of £120,000, and an output of 540,540 gallons.
Here are the statistics of production and consumption for the last six years of the thirty-two Argentine breweries:——
Year. Production Consumption (pints). (pints). 1902 49,096,235 46,933,520 1903 57,043,272 56,360,350 1904 65,663,824 65,077,538 1905 94,264,637 86,833,214 1906 113,967,478 113,898,794 1907 123,404,693 115,746,857 ----------- ----------- 503,440,139 484,850,273 ----------- -----------
The national product has won a complete victory over the foreign article, the importation of which is now negligible; and it has also popularised the liquid dear to Cambrinus, which ten years ago was still a luxury. One can only regret that agriculture, whose development has of late been so enormous, has not as yet liberated the brewery from the necessity of going to the foreigner for his malt, a product of barley which is the principal raw material of beer. Hitherto, according to Girola, the native barleys have been very little used, as they are not appreciated as they deserve to be; and the growers, on the other hand, have not taken sufficient pains to produce a good brewer’s barley. We must hope that this situation will soon be changed, and that more pains will be taken in the numberless fertile valleys of the Argentine in the growing of barley and its improvement.