In the Argentine men employ, for the more important crops, such as wheat, maize, linseed, lucerne, etc., the latest and most perfect agricultural implements and machines; cultivators, ploughs, drills, harvesters, etc., etc. We have not space to mention all; but it is enough to say that in the regions where farming on a large scale is the rule, a progressive spirit is in the air, which impels the owners of great establishments, and even simple settlers, to furnish themselves with the very best machinery, for which they sometimes pay considerable sums. That agriculture has achieved the rapid expansion of which we have just given details, notwithstanding the little help which immigration has lately rendered, is due principally to the employment of the perfected machinery in common use.
The best types of ploughs, harrows, drills, and reapers of all kinds——binder-reapers, traction-engines, winnowing and thrashing machines, all of the best construction and the most recent model——are familiar to the Argentine farmer, who makes constant use of them.
The owners of the great “estancias” make all necessary sacrifices in order to work their estates in the latest and most perfect manner. The machinery comes from the United States, and facilitates all the operations of _la grande culture_. Two or three years ago, for example, saw the advent of a new machine, simple and of moderate price, which replaced the reaper and thrasher, by performing both operations at once as it moved. It reaps the ears of corn, winnows them, grades the grain, and pours it into sacks; leaving the straw, it is true, but the value of straw in the Argentine is negligible. All these operations are performed as the machine progresses; four horses are enough to draw it. With this new machine corn that is standing in the morning is reaped during the day, and by the evening is ready for despatch to the port of embarkation.
To give some idea of the extent to which agricultural machinery is used in the Argentine, we may mention that in the period 1890-1904 there were imported from abroad, mostly from the United States, 459,006 ploughs, officially valued for customs purposes at £1,331,409; 22,783 winnowers, valued at £277,976; 98,470 reapers, valued at £2,041,982; 37,824 drills, or sowers, valued at £176,268; and 4770 thrashing-machines, valued at £1,250,184. From 1898 to 1904 13,725 maize huskers were imported, valued at £340,479.