ARGENTINA'S RIVALRY.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1416, 16 October 1923, Page 6

ARGENTINA'S RIVALRY.

A SERIOUS WARNING. A very serious warning is issued by Mr W. Tate, who returned from an apple vending venture in the Argentine by the Tahiti last week, against taking the productive rivalry of the great Latin Republic too easily. Like others who have visited Argentina, he was amazed at the marvellous undeveloped possibilities of the country, and he is of the opinion that its dairy industry, when properly organised, will prove as serious a rival to New Zealand as its meat trade. “People do not realise what a marvellous country Argentina is,” said Mr Tate. “The trouble there is not to fatten the cattle, but to. keep them from getting too fat. When you go out to the second and third grade land, and see lucerne that has been down for 12 or 15 years attending cattle, you realise the small amount of cultivation necessary compared with our own. From the beef point of view they have wiped-, us out, and as far as the meat industry is concerned until we pull down overhead charges they will continue doing it. It makes one think to see their four freezing works against our 50. while their lower standard of life and the employment of boys and girls enable them to cut down labour expenses to a degree that will not bear any comparison with ours. SERIOUS DAIRYING RIVAL. “When Argentina takes up the dairying industry in earnest—at present she is only playing with it —she will be very likely to rival us almost as seriously as in the meat trade. The majority of the holdings are too large, but they are quickly becoming smaller. Several farmers are employing New Zealanders who know the business, and have milking machines, and these are proving quite successful in the production of a fine dairy product. It is only a question of time when all the dairy farmers of the Argentine will have up-to-date methods, but they must first get over the antiquated methods they have at present. We must remember that they have thousands of acres to our hundreds. Do not think they have no water. That idea is all wrong. They have heavy rains at certain times, and they can always bore with success for water. But they will not go in for dairying while they do not need to.

"A good deal has been made of the hard times in the Argentine, but many of them are as well off, or better off, in some cases, than people here. Argentina is a great wheat and maize country, and so long as they can make a living that way they will not go in for dairying until they have to. They have not had to work like we do here, hut the time will come when the expansion of the country will make them work, as the holdings grow smaller. It is only a question of time before they see that they will make more money out of dairying and then they will get at it. There has been a slump, dua to over buying, the same as here, and a lot of them have come to grief, hut in spite of that the chief men are better off than the people here. They are three weeks nearer to the markets of the world than we are, and so we have to face the limit of working expenses. Our only hope of keeping abreast of them is in up-to-date methods and closer application of scientific production. PRESENT METHODS. "I visited one dairy farm which milked 300 cows, 150 in the morning and 150 at night. The milking was done, not in sheds, but in the cow yards, and the milk was milked into the tine in which it was taken to the town and sold to the public. The man washed neither his hands nor the udders. To show how behindhand they are, they were feeding the cows in winter time with dry maize stalks, although there was' plenty of dry alfalfa. I worked out what their cows produce, and I think one ,of ours produces as much as five of theirs. When such people learn to apply modern methods, what will the result he? To-day any man who understood the habits and language of the people and could take up a dairy farm near Buenos Aires could make a fortune. There is a campaign in hand to make the people eat more butter, to increase the production, and placards showing how much one pound of butter is worth in other foods are hung everywhere.

The total private British capital in the Argentine is £450,000,000. and this is all interested in the progress of the country to the extent that its interests are as much argenine as British. The only hope for New Zealand is in preference as regards the markets of the United Kingdom, but the idea was expressed to rae in the Argentine thai New Zealand will find it difficult to secure this against the British-Argentine interests."