to the financial crisis of that year, it fell away almost to nothing.
Since 1890 it has gradually increased until now it is about 100,000 a
year again. In 1869 the population was only 1,837,000. Now it is over
4,000,000. Similarly the capital city, Buenos Ayres, has made an
increase not easily paralleled. In 1869 its population was only
187,126. In 1887 it was 423,996. By the census of 1895 it was 663,854.
To-day it is said to be 750,000. Of this number about one half are
foreigners. The high protective tariff established by Argentina in
1878 had the effect of instituting many small industries in Buenos
Ayres, and to this cause the exceedingly rapid growth of its
population is partly attributable.

ARGENTINA'S AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES

The great prosperity of Argentina has been due to the extent and
immediate availability of its agricultural resources, for its forest
wealth remains undeveloped, and its mineral resources are
comparatively scanty. Its vast treeless and stoneless plains have
needed no "improvements" to make them fit for settlement, and the soil
which covers them being of virgin richness bears crop after crop
without fertilising and with very little cultivation. Immigrants
arrive in the country without a dollar and in twenty years are owners
of estates of 5000 acres each. In no country in the world has
agricultural extension been more rapid. In twenty years the acreage
under cultivation increased 1400 per cent. The amount under
cultivation in wheat alone increased 2600 per cent. The WHEAT
PRODUCTION averages 40,000,000 bushels, which is not far short of one
fourth of the total wheat export of the United States. The production
for 1897 was 60,000,000 bushels, although the amount exported was much
less than that. The wheat product is indeed very variable, owing to
droughts and locusts, for, like Australia, Argentina is uncertain in
its rainfall. The CORN CROP is steadier, and in 1896 amounted (for
export alone) to 60,000,000 bushels. More important in the aggregate
than the direct products of the soil are the indirect products. There
are 22,000,000 CATTLE kept in Argentina, 75,000,000 SHEEP, and
4,500,000 HORSES. The total exportation of animals and animal products
amounts to $70,-000,000. Of this exportation the principal item is
WOOL, the wool-clip of Argentina being, in weight, one seventh of the
total wool-clip of the world. Unfortunately, however, Argentina wool
is very dirty, and when washed red