With what a workman or settler pays monthly for the rent of the land, he makes himself, after a short time, the owner of the land and of the house he lives in, as the monthly rent redeems with a small interest the value of the property.
In such conditions great many people are known who enjoy all these advantages, and many more, who being the proprietors of the land purchased in such a way have made small fortunes.
There cannot be a better way imagined of fixing the immigrants or giving to the peasant all the means of becoming a proprietor and of consecrating himself to highly profitable agricultural industries.
The population has not yet reached a great density. The best part of the territory is destined to cattle, sheep, and horse breeding, in establishments called _estancias_. _A suerte or estancia_ is equivalent to 1992 hectares 2787 metres, or one league and a half in length by a half league in width, or three quarters of a square league or 4,923 square acres 333 square yards.
The price of a _suerte_ varies according to the department and also to its situation. The lowest price of a _suerte_ is generally no less than $7,000 and rises above $50,000 in the departments quite close to the capital, that are still devoted to pastoral land.
In the north, next to the frontier, land may be purchased at the rate of $3 to $10 an hectare.
In the south, the land rises to higher prices, which vary from $10 to $100 per hectare.
The agricultural land in the environs of towns and villages, and in the departments of Canelones, Colonia, Soriano, San Jose, Paysandu, Salto costs $10, $20, $40, $50 and $100 an hectare. In the department of Montevideo it rises to $100, $200 and $300, according to the situation.
There are no restrictions or difficulties in purchasing or transfer.
Great companies established abroad, above all in England, and others in the Republic have purchased great tracts of land in order to improve cattle breeding, agriculture, sand and stone extraction along the banks of the River Plate and Uruguay, and other important rural industries.
During these last two years the agricultural industry has notably spread itself, above all that of cereals, forage, firewood trees, vine, olive trees, tobacco and oleoginous and textile plants.