NATURAL CONDITIONS——THE CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY——The three principal agricultural districts——The northern, central, and southern districts——The division of crops and their varieties.
The constitution of rural property——The division of property——The great estates, called “estancias,” and their dimensions.
The drawbacks of large properties——The necessity of a better subdivision of the public lands——The division into lots of large tracts of land, in order to encourage colonisation——The system of exploiting property.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION——Progress realised in the last seventeen years——Comparative yield of the chief products, wheat, flax, and maize——Lucerne; the importance of the crop and the excellent results obtained.
Increase of the area under seed——The total area cultivated in the agricultural years 1908-1909——The great agricultural belts.
The Province of Buenos Ayres, its agricultural development and its crops——The Province of Santa Fé——The Province of Córdoba——The Territory of the Pampa Central.
Agricultural machinery, its importation from abroad, and especially from the United States.
THE AGRICULTURAL YIELD——The yield of the soil in the different Provinces——Exceptional results in certain districts——Detailed calculation of the yield of a wheat farm——Two instances of great wealth realised by immigrants into the Argentine.
_Natural Conditions——The Constitution of Property_
The Argentine Republic, which we are now about to consider from the geological and hydrographical point of view, offers, by the mere fact of its physical constitution, an immense future for agriculture on the largest possible scale, and at the same time for stock-raising and the rural industries.
We find that the country contains three principal agricultural regions: (1) the region to the north of the provinces of Santa Fé and Entre Rios; (2) the central region which runs southward from the limits of the northern, as far as the south of the Province of Buenos Ayres and the Territory of La Pampa, including a portion of the Territories of Rio Negro and Neuquen; (3) the southern region, which runs southward from the limits of the central region, down to Tierra del Fuego.
The first region is characterised by a hot climate, with regular rains in the eastern parts; in the west the rainfall is less frequent. The central region enjoys a temperate climate; there, as in the northern region, the rains are regularly distributed in the eastern parts, but are very rare in the west, which is subject to long periods of drought. In the southern region the rains are less frequent and the climate is more severe, with the exception of the west and the extreme south, which are also in a rainy belt.