PROFESSOR WALLACE ON ARGENTINA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1666, 3 February 1904, Page 68

PROFESSOR WALLACE ON ARGENTINA

In opening hda ojaas of agricultural and rural economy at the Edinburgh University, Professor Robert Wallace gave an ILOOOunb of what he lad seen in Hs re- - <6ent tTayela throughout the Argentine Republic. After referring to the growth of crops. he said he thought the greatest interest w« had in the Argentine was in connection with, the meat trade. He thought the live stock trade with the Argentine was gone for ever. He did not think the Argentine people wanted it, ot that there wera many people wanted it in .this country, and. of course a business «f that kind could only have a short exj■ft istaooe; now they had got down to the solid frozen meat trade, one that would inereAM enormously. A very good author-' itr in that country estimated that the Argentine, wou/ld be able to send 10,000.000 ofjheep frozen and 1.000,000 of cattle, being four tunas as many cattle and about three times as many sheep as last year. V fib thought that authority might probiUr be right in regard to cattle, but he questioned whether the increase in sheep aroiiXd ba so great. The total number of ibtpre atook in the: Argantoh© was rather a doubtful quantity- Some of the Govern- • mienlt returns estimated the number of aneep at about 120,000,000. There were : flrdatdjgubta as to the accui*acy of these • -Warea, and besides there had been a 'in the sheep, and he v’f vttuwafct they would be safe in putting the **<3P**2* 100,000,000. sheep, lie estimated : tans cattle at somewhere about 20,000,000.

We were interested not only Op. the im>portaitiioii of frozen mutton and! beef, but also in the necessity of Argentine taking from us the good! blood of our various breeds, amid breeding; up from the native stock. The Argentine had! been our best customer for years for Shorthorn cattle, and it would yet, file.was quite confident, require an enormous number of ’good animals, because they hid only just begun to develop this great country, and alfalfa was so good as a pasture and for •hay,; that the . best stock could be produced. As regards sheep, Professor Wallace said the commonest variety was a crossbred Lincoln. The merino now in fashion was the French merino, which, crossing the Lincoln, made a good sheep for freezing purposes. The area on which sheep could be kept with profit was limited, because the sheep destroyed the alfalfa. If they stocked alfalfa with sheep all the year round', it only lasted for a--year or/two. They had to restore thair pastures every four or fie years, and this led to enormous expense, so that . they would be batter paid by keeping cattle in greater numbers, and doing away with sheep altogether.