FIG. 1.-CHAMPION LINCOLN RAM AT ARGENTINE RURAL SOCIETY'S SHOW, SEPTEMBER, 1908. LAMBED AUGUST 1, 1907. SIRED BY AN IMPORTED RAM; DAM BRED IN ARGENTINA.

JUDGING SHORTHORN BULLS AT A SHOW OF THE ARGENTINE RURAL SOCIETY.

almost entirely. It is an ideal pasture country; cattle thrive summer and winter on no feed but grass, and very little shelter is required. Except when fitting stock for show or sale, no grain is fed; but when stock is being so fitted no expense is spared to put the animals into the best condition. The competition in the show ring is exceedingly keen, and even as early as November, 1908, cattle were being fitted for the show of 1910.

Being a land of luxurious pasture, this is an ideal country for Shorthorn cattle and Lincoln sheep. The great majority of the cattle are Shorthorns; Herefords are used only on pastures that are naturally poor or which have been overstocked. In the north, in the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios, Aberdeen-Angus cattle are comparatively common; they appear to thrive there as well as they do in our own Southern States. With the average ranch owner, however, Aberdeen-Angus cattle are not especially popular, although some packing-house managers have urged their use. Little corn is fed to stock and most of the steers are sold for slaughter directly off grass, just as our western cattle are marketed and the export cattle from the bluegrass pastures of southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina.

In the west the great alfalfa “camps are one of the wonders of the country. Whole ranches are sown to alfalfa, and it is not at all uncommon to see tracts of 40,000 to 50,000 acres entirely in alfalfa. They even tell of landowners who are sowing from 65,000 to 85,000 acres in this legume. Nearly all the alfalfa is pastured by horses, cattle, and sheep, and few losses result.

The impression one gets from visiting these establishments is that of physical vastness and immense resources. With it all, however, there is an attention to business details that is surprising, and laborsaving devices are common.

SAN JUAN.

The first estancia (stock farm) visited was San Juan, located south of Buenos Aires, within an hour's ride of the city. It has been in the hands of the same family for many years, the present owner being the grandson of the original owner. The history of the estancia covers a period of more than fifty years, and during all this time Shorthorn cattle of the highest type have been bred. Within comparatively recent years Herefords have been added, and the owner is fully as proud of his Herefords as he is of his Shorthorns. Unfortunately time did not permit a careful examination of the Herefords, but the writer's impression of them, as seen in the field, was that they are animals of good quality, good size, and full fleshed, and that they would compare favorably with those bred in the United States. The Shorthorn cows on this estancia are excellent-much better, in fact,

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