THE SHEPHERD OF THE RIVER PLATE.*
THE Argentine Republic is not in good odour at the present moment with English capitalists, who are, perhaps, hardly in a humour to hear of its industries. It may be expected, how- ever, when the lapse of a little more time has cooled their resentment, and enabled them not only to take a calmer view • Iii story and Present State of .the Sheep.Breeding Industry in the Argentina Republic. By Halbert Gibson. Bum s A rPS UtIV011i croft and Mills of the situation, but also to recognise the undeniable share of responsibility which their own recklessness incurred in the late financial disasters, that they will learn to distinguish be- tween the plausible schemes of bogus speculations and the genuine enterprise offered by the two great industries which actually constitute the wealth and prosperity of the country. The solid progress of stock-raising and agriculture in the Argentine Republic deserves a more serious attention than it has yet attracted ; and Mr. Herbert Gibson's account of it in one of its aspects, that of sheep-farming, comes at a very opportune moment, if it be only to remind the Eng- lish creditor that the Republic still depends upon other industries than that of floating bubble companies, or starting rotten banks. It may be premised that the author has set himself by no means an easy task, He proposes to give not only a history of the past and an account of the present state of sheep-farming in the River Plate, but also to furnish use- ful information both to the would-be colonist and the sheep. farmer who is already settled in the country. To accomplish this object with any completeness he would have needed a great deal more space than he has allowed himself; as it is, hie his- tory lacks something in the matter of clearness, and his advice to sheep-farmers leaves many important details undiscussed. That is almost the only fault that can be fairly found with his book, which in all other respects is a model of its kind. Not only does the author thoroughly understand what he is writing about, but he has recognised the necessity of showing evidence for all the facts that he asserts, and of backing even opinions founded upon his own experience by reference to his istoek-book. What is especially needed in dealing with a subject of this kind is a straightforward, unpretentious, and absolutely unvarnished account; and that is exactly what the author has tried to give. To any Englishman who intends to become an tstanciero in the River Plate the book should prove invaluable, as Mr. Gibson has collected for him a mass of necessary information which he could only otherwise acquire by long and sometimes sad experience.
The chief difficulty encountered by the English immigrant is to make his knowledge of English shepherding conform with the different conditions of sheep-farming which exist in the new country. Everything is changed, the climate, the pastures, the stock itself, and, above all, the labour. At first he will be scandalised at the apparent carelessness and un- thriftiness of the Argentine shepherd, and the extraordinary traditions upon which the latter depends for the management of his stock. Then, by degrees, as he comes to realise that he is working on a scale and under conditions that make his previous knowledge somewhat inapplicable in practice, he is only too prone to go to the other extreme, and throw over all his old theories in favour of his asew experience, becoming in the end even more slovenly than the Argentines themselves. Happily this has not been always the case ; and the native sheep-farmer owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the foreigners who have introduced a better and more scientific system of sheeprearing than they would ever have evolved for themselves. The history of the early days of sheep- farming as it is given by the author, shows how great a benefit the foreign colonist has conferred upon the country of his adoption by the introduction of good stock from Europe and an improved method of keeping it ; and it is satis- factory to note that the chief pioneers in this movement were Englishmen. Some idea of the actual progress that has been made can be gathered from certain statistics which the author quotes as to the number of sheep and the relative weight of the wool-clip. In 1840, there were something like five millions of sheep in the country, with a yield of thirteen million pounds of wool, or an average of a little more than 2.1 lb. to each sheep. In 1800, fifty years later, there were seventy-eight millions of sheep, yield. ing 310 million pounds of wool, or an average yield of 4 lb. to each sheep. The real progress, however, was made during the last twenty-five years, for until 1866 sheep,farming had not fully established iteelf as a regular industry of the country. Taking into consideration that these statistios have been based upon wool that is sold in the grease, the yield per sheep can hardly be said to have yet reached anything like its proper average, especially if we compare it with the 5 lb. of wool averaged by Australian flocks, or the still higher yield of North America; nevertheless, it will be readily granted that the improvement in quality is greater than the extraordinarily rapid increase in quantity would Warrant. The improvement would have been even more marked, the author thinks, had estancieros thoroughly realised the fact that a bad sheep costs as much to keep as a good one. In this we think he is hardly just to the average sheep-farmer; the latter is quite alive te the necessity of improving his stock, but is still rather in doubt as to the direction in which he should seek improvement. Since the introduction of the frozen-meat industry, he has hovered between two aims,—a heavy fleece, and a heavy carcass. The Lincoln cross is the only one that really combines both advantages ; but the Lincolns, which do extremely well in some districts, are not at all suited to others. The author's suggestions as to the suitability of various breeds to different parts of the country are, of course, sensible enough, but they do not cover the whole field of possibilities. It is no use producing mutton where the market for meat is out of reach; and a good deal of the land which he describes as affording excellent pasture for long-wooled, heavy-bodied sheep, is altogether too distant from any centre. It is true that these conditions are generally found upon land which is not far from the sea-board, but the sea-board and the mutton market are by no means convertible terms upon the Argentine coast, where sea-ports are conspicuous by their absence. The chapters devoted to the administration of the sheep-farm and the most prevalent diseases of sheep, contain a good deal of very sound and excellent advice. But there are one or two points upon which the author is strangely silent. The introduction of wire-fencing, and the division of sheep. runs into large potreroa, or separate paddocks, effected a considerable change in the old method of keeping flocks. In former days, a shepherd had quite as much as he could do to manage a flock of a thousand sheep ; now there is practically no limit to the number of sheep that may be allowed to run together but the opinion of the manager as to the largest number which is advisable. In Australia, we believe, breeding. ewes are allowed to run in flocks up to three thousand, and "dry" flocks often exceed six thousand. These large flocks have other advantages besides that of economy of labour and expense, but for some reason or other they have not yet found favour with the Argentine sheep-farmer, and Mr. Gibson's opinion as to the present practice of division into small flocks might have been useful. Connected with this question is that of yarding the sheep at night. Although the reasons for shutting the sheep every night in the old corral no longer exist, the practice still continues in spite of its manifest drawbacks and inconveniences, and we look in vain for the author's verdict on a custom which has been often the subject of much debate.
His remarks upon the subject of the great plague of Argen- tine sheep-farming, the scab, are sound enough in theory, but we should be disposed to deprecate the sweeping stric- ture that he passes on the practice which is known as "hand- curing." It is perfectly true that dipping the sheep is in every way preferable to curing them by hand; but to say that the latter practice is more productive of harm than good is to say a good deal too much, and to discourage small sheep- farmers from adopting what is often the only remedy within their reach. The author must know by experience that t) cure by hand is at least preferable to not curing the sheep at all. Nor does he give sufficient reasons for supposing that a scab-law would be less efficacious in the Argentine Republic than it has proved elsewhere. In the present condition of rural government in that country it would undoubtedly be most difficult of application ; but that is a difficulty which would inevitably be overcome by a few years' steady per- sistence on the part of the central authorities. There are other minor points of policy in sheep-breeding advanced by the author to which one might be disposed to take exception, were they not, after all, chiefly matters of opinion. On the whole, his book, though treating often of much debatable matter, calls for very little adverse criticism, and the author may be fairly congratulated upon having accomplished a very useful and a much-needed work.
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