WHAT A NEW ZEALANDER SAYS OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 7

WHAT A NEW ZEALANDER SAYS OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

We (South American Journal) have been favoured with a copy of the following private communication, in which the writer (who, after a residence of over a decade in New Zealand, has now been settled for so cue years in Argentina) gives a 7ery interesting account of pastoral and agricultural life in this republic, as compared with the British colony in question. The comparison is undoubtedly favourable to the former : — Buenos Ayres, South America, January 7, 1890. Dear Mr G , Your letter dated October 4, 1889, reached me safely in the latter part of November, and I was glad to hear that you and yours are all well and prospering in your new home. I was aware you had left New Zealand some few months after I did with the view of onca more settling down in the Old Country. I should have answered your letter sooner, but had no idea of the lapse of time, which does fly so very quickly in the camp, as the country is termed here, when one is busy. The working day is so very long here at this season of the year that one has very little leisure time of an evening, and after dinner at 8 or 9 one is generally inclined to turu iv pretty soon, in order to be up and doing early next morning. Work commences at sunrise and continues till sunset, with an interval only of from two to threo hours during the heat of the day for breakfast, as the day meal is called, and a short rest, or siesta, afterwards. Nothing strikes a New Zealander, accustomed to the eight hours' system and the plentiful fare of his native land, more forcibly than tho way the peons are treated here. The gaucho rises from his rough bed, composed of the gear and paddle cloths or rugs of his ricado, or native saddle, and a poncho Bimply spread on the ground, al daylight, aud, after sucking a little) bitter male, an infusion of the yerba, or Paraguay tea, frum a gourd through a narrow | tube, he Roes to work. Ab 7or 8 o'clock he has mat 6 cocido, or boiled yerba tea, and a biscuit, and then works on till 11 or 12, when he has his breakfast of asario, or meat roasted on a npife, or puchcro, meat boiled with a little rice and a few vegetable", if any, and served with the broth At 2 o'clock work is resumed and continued till sunset, except; for a few minutes' spell to cuck mate, and then he has his dinuer, a repetition of breakfast, makes up his bed, and goes co'nfortably off to Bleep on the ground. This is the usual routine of life in the camp, and the usual camp fare, and on these rough outside camps, on what was up to a few years back the frontier of the Indian territory, where the estaneias are only newly formed, aud the life comparatively in the rougb, the master lives but little better than tbo man. The trc-atru.,ut varies a little in different placet 1 , .some ustancieros allowing their i man n libtlti bugar a d camp biscuit aud vege- ' table 0 , while others only supply meat, a little rice and balr, and yerba, but as a rule it is as I describe, and, if cuiytl.i.,^, ijti English estaucibroti thtt. mea are b. st off

I wonder .vh<it <,ur fiu'ud the Now Zoaland working in in, espfoi-ul} the unemployed, would say to .such .» ni.ito t.f thioys.? No doubt he would b«. for striking for better treatment, but he would find no pabortnl Government here to step in between employers and employed and supply him with work at almost aoy terms he chose to dictate, as is, unfortunately, too much the case there. Of course, in inside camp, as the country within 40 aud 50 leagues of Buenos Ayred is termed, where the estaneias have been long established, and the eatancieros have made

their money and are rich and well to do, they do not live in this rough style, but can afford to live well and keep up a good deal of style ; but the treatment of the men is pretty much the same throughout. So much for the mode of life in the republic. But you wish to know something about the land, sheep-farming, &c , here aa compared with New Zealand. First, however, let me say a few words about the climate. In summer it is very much hotter here than in the South of Now Zealand, the thermometer often ranging over lOOdeg Fahr. iv the shade; but I do not find the heat so oppressive after all. For one thing, one is not subject here to the sudden and frequent changes of temperature for which the Dliraate of Now Zealand is ao remarkable, and when once the hot weather fairly sets in, the heat is so regular and constant that one gets accustomed to it, and it is thus not so trying as the occasional hot days experienced there. Then it is a dry heat, not so moist and oppressive as there, and in the camp there is alwaja more or It^a of a breeze rolling over thu pampas, which makes it much more endurable. Sometimes, however, we experience very hot northerly winds, generally accompanied by dust storms, when the air is like a blast from a firry furnace, and very I rying to some teroperuaients, bub the breeze "]« generally cool and balmy, and in tbe early morning especially it is very delightful. In winter the weather is usually flue, warm, and sunny during the day, with a touch of fr«st «eldom severe at night. Sometimes, however, it freezes hard, and ou several occasions I have broken ice half an inch thick on a tub of water in the morning. Personally, I have not felt tho cold here, but people who have been out a few years say that comparatively speaking you feel the cold here much more tiian in Englaud even, and it is a curious fact that trees, which survive the very much colder winters of Ofcago and Southland, are cm. down here almost every winter by the frost and cannot be got to do well in the interior, although nearer the coast they grow remarkably well. It is seldom cold and stormy here, and the cold piercing south-easterly gales and driving pelting south-westers, accompanied by showers of sleet or cold raiu, so frequent during the autumn and spring in New Zealand, are almost unknown here. Now and then the weather is cloudy and at times foggy and damp during the winter months Owing to the scarcity of fuel, fire is rather a luxury here, and in the evening one has to keep up the warmth of the body by extra clothing, which is not so cheerful as sitting over a roaring wood fire. Coal has not been di'covered yet in a get-at-able place, and of natural timber there is none, except along the coast or bordering some of the rivers or away up in the provinces higher up the River Plate. It is rather amusing to a New Zealander, accustomed to a bis zing fire of logs leaping half way up the chimney, to see the people here crouching round a wretched fire composed of a few miserable twigs or bones or dried animal chips, which is all there is to burn at present on these newly-formed ostancias. In time no doubt we shall have plenty of wood, but it takes some time to grow. The houses here, through being all built of brick and well plastered, though not papered inside, are very much warmer and not so well ventilated as the weatherboard houses of New Zealand, and so fires are not so necessary. On the whole, the climate, though, perhaps, not so suitable for English people as that of New Zealand, is healthy.

Now for the land. I do not think in any country in fche world there is such a vast extent of such good rich land, suitable for either pastoral or agricultural purposes. The surfaco of the country is almost perfectly flat or very slightly undulating, and of natural features there are scarcely any. Not a hill, not a ridge, not even a gully breaks the vast expanse, nothing but the level camp stretching right away as far as the eye can reach to the horizon. There are no woods, no forests, and but very few rivers and streams, but there is an inexhaustible supply of water below the surface, which can be struck almost anywhere at a depth of a few yards. The soil is a rich deep alluvial deposit, resting on a bed of sandy, loamy day, and is very easily worked. In its natural state, before the land has been stocked, it is covered with a rough wiry grass, very like white tussock in New Zealand ; but it rapidly refines by stocking, and in course of time all this rough glass dies out and is replaced by short, sweet, tender grasses, much relished by sheep. This is *he great difference I see between natural camp here and native pasture in the colonies. In New Zealand the runs, if anything, bave deteriorated by stocking ; but here, on the contrary, if judiciously done, the camp improves, and in time presents the appearance at a distance of a vast English grass meadow, It is customary here to stock rough outside camps with cattle for a number of years. These eat and tread down the rough coarse grasses, and as the camp refines it becomes more suitable for sheep. Even in its rough state, however, it will carry a limited number of sheep to advantage. When first taken up the camp carries but little stock, six to eight hundred head of cattle and about the same number of sheep to the square league being generally found as much as a rough grass camp can safely carry. If you reduce the cat; ln to sheep in the ratio of four sheep to one cow, this stock means that you carry about two sheep to every three acrei. Thia is a much heavier stock than the greater part of even the beat class of rua country in New Zealand will carry on the average, and then, unless you go to heavy expense in surface sowing or ploughing, you can never hope to carry any more ; while here, by simply stocking, your camp refines, anrl in tbe course of say 15 to 20 years, will carry quite double the original stock The best sheep lands of the country aro those in the province ot Buenos Ayres within a radius of say 40 to 50 leagues of the city. The reason of this is that they have been heavily btockcil and r< fined for a long term of years, and to that alone their present excellence must be attributed. They are covered with various classes of fine graminaceous grasses, natural clovers, and soft and hard thistles, all of which afford food for both sheep and cattle, and in the winter and spring when the grasses are short and green they present a similar appearance io lands laid down in English grasses in New Zealand These rich refiued inside camps carry a very heavy stock of cattle, mares, and sheep, which if all i educed to sheep would mean three to four sheep to the acre. Some carry even more, but they are exceptional, like the Hawke's Bay lunds in New Zealand, and some less according to situaK v and quality. Most of rho best grasses are annuals, and require intelligent manag-inent to eiiMire their re-Rce'ling themselv.-s every year — thus, at certain seasons they require to run to sued, and at olhiT6 again must be kept eatc-u down close. This nf-ceositates a certain amount < f floating stock, in the, shape of fatc-rs and wethers, fattening, whioh is <i profitable bu->iot':-H on good fntLt ning eirnp*.. It, Ijn-s been loum] that to stock entirely with s-hrep doe, not do, as they punish the finer grasses too much, and prevent their seeding; you must keep a large proportion of cattle. Many otherwise fine camps have been greatly deteriorated in this way, but I think on the whole considerable intelligence has been shown by estancieros, English in particular, in nursing aud making the most of the natural grasses of the country, I alwayr, thought that in New Zealand the carrj ing capability of

the runs was considerably lessened in the first instance by overstocking with sheep, and also, too, by too indiscriminate burning, and perhaps it would have paid better in the end to have kept a large proportion of cattle, instead of leaning so entirely to s-heep. Of course, in Otago and Southland, tbe rabbits stepped in aud completed fcho destructiou which overstocking had already commenced.

The tenure of land here is the direct opposite of that pursued iv the colonies. There it is usually the big man who leases, aud the little man who buys aud owns, in name at least, his land ; but here the big man owns the land and the little man takes up small blocks of leasehold. Here the Government have parted with the land and now only hold comparatively a small portion of it, and that mostly in the interior, and the great bulk of tho laud is freehold, and in the hpnds either of individuals or companies. It remains to be r-oen which system has worked the beat, but hore the est/iboiaros have proopered and grown rich, which moat certainly has not been tl<e mho in New Zealand.

Stock — The nativo breed of cattle is very much inferior to tho genoral run of cattle in Now Z inland. They aro small and narrow, aud d i not mnturo early nor fatten easily. Steers of this hved do nub weiph when dressed ui'iro than half tho weight or fair average New Z^ 1 ir> f l RteoiH of ibnsanjoj'ga ; but they carry a good hide, aud it >« for tha trade in hides anu piii-bly alan iv j»rked b 'of, that they has'e bsen principally b>'Pd and iwed On inside estanciaa, however, for m.Miy yeara they have been crooning &tid rccro'jjiiig their cf.tt'.o with purebred imported bul'w, piinc'paUy ef the shorthorn and Her ford breed.*, wid moat large estancias, especially lho;-3 in the hand v of foreigners, you will 860 vory trie cattle, and in many places largo herds of almost purebred shorthorns aud Herefords. On these lattor places bulls of evc-ry grade avid cross ate bred for sale, and this re^i'inf? of fine stock, horses, cattle, and sheep, has been one of tho most paying businesses in the country. Sheep, aKo, on the average are inferior to the colonial, especially in tho wool. The principal bretdo are merino and Lincoln, but tho Down claaaed are also largely represented. The moriuos on tha average are email and poorly woolled, and the wool is shorter and not ro fine and silky to the touch, nor so strong in the staple as the colonial prr duct. The Lincoln and Downs are very fair, and no expense is being spared to improve them ai much as possible. There aro also all grades of crosses bet weeu tho Lincoln and moiino, and the Downs and fche muviuo and thia crossing ia receiving more ond more attention evory day, and the number of bred flocks is being rapidly augmented in order to supply largesized mutton for the freezing budness. On many inside places they have now very fine flocks indeed of Lincolns, Djwub, and merinos, be sides all gradus of crossbtods, and every effort is being made by tho un« of imported sires of a high typo to improve the different breeds. To sum up, the stock of fhis couutry, bothiu sheep and cattle, is docidediy inferior on tho average to tho general stock in New Zealand ; but on very many estaneias there are whole herds and flocks of a very high atandard of excellence, and on some few places thero are herds and flocks of almost purebred stock, while no expenfe is spared by the use of imported animals, both male and female, to attain to as high a degree of excellence as possible. The system of management pursued hitherto, taking the country as a whole, has been careless and lax in the extreme. Tho fact is that in years past pastoral pursuits paid so well here that an improved system was not_ necessary, and the want of it scarcely recognised, aa a man grew rich beyond expectations simply by the increase of his flocks and herds. Thus all clasßes of cattle used to run together in large herds called "rodeos," bullß, Bteers, breeding cows, heifers, and oalves, care only being taken to keep them more or le&s within the boundaries of the camp. With sheep almost the same system was pursued as that in vogue in the early days in Australia. You gave a shepherd a hut and some 2000 sheep to look after witha certain range of country to pasture.them on. He had to take them out in the early morning, remain with them all day, and bring them back to fold near his hut at night. No attempt was made to keep the different ages and sexes apart, but all ran together, breeding more or less all the year round. Under thia system it was impossible to improve your herds or flocka, but rather they tended to deteriorate. But a good deal of thia waß inseparable from working ou unfencod camp, aud fencing did not take for some time owing to the unsettled government of the country, and partly alao owing to the scarcity of timber. Thia system is still pursued on open camp, particularly on outside camp, whore neither camp nor stock is very valuable yet. But all this is ohanging fast. Fencing is now the order of_ the day almost everywhere, and with it an improved syntem of management. True, many of the old school, although tbmy have rngfenced their camps, still persist in old methods, but othera again are subdividing and introducing the paddock system, keeping the various breeds and sexeß and agoa apart. Thus a radical chancre ia gradually laking place, and most of tha Eapli>-h entancieros are following the new ordor of things, Still there is much room for improvement, and weaienoteo far advanced aa they are in New Zealand and Australia. This ia particulaily tbo case in tho breeding j and management of Bheey, and more eepecv illy in the getting up of tho wool clip. No expense ia spared iv improving stock and otherwise, but a groit del 1 of the monoy bo spent is w^.eted nud thrown away for lack of thi rtquiaite skill and intclligonca iv dealing with tlii stock af rerwardw. Tim appliou more paitinularly (Lough l<» the native eH'aiiciorcs. T thiuk that U all the inform \tl-iu re land and sheop farming I chp, mnd you this time. Ah thU }iai already provva to ouch a lougth, I will lr>nvo your inquiries »s to B^hia Blancft, &c, till p.nothor upporhjtji'y, — With kind rof<aida to youiself and Mrs G , 1 remain, youra vejy sincortly, G. F. D.