uces to one third, while Australian
wool reduces only to two thirds or three fifths and is free from
seeds. The profit accruing to the Argentina wool-grower is thereby
lessened. But, nevertheless, wool-growing in Argentina is a very
profitable industry, and many farmers (principally Irish settlers)
have from 50,000 to 100,000 sheep each. Cattle-farming is carried on
mostly by native Argentines, and many cattle farms are stocked with as
many as 10,000 cattle and 2000 horses each. The great exports of
Argentina, therefore, after wheat and corn and wool, are HIDES and
SKINS, TALLOW, CHILLED BEEF, and MUTTON and bones. There are five
factories in Buenos Ayres engaged wholly in chilling mutton, and the
export of chilled mutton to Great Britain alone is $5,000,000 a year.
Another growing agricultural product is WINE, the yearly production
being 1,500,000 gallons. Notwithstanding Argentina's magnificent
forest areas, but little timber is exported or even manufactured for
home consumption. The other principal manufacturing industries are
carriage-, cart-, and harness-making, cigarette- and match-making,
preserving and tinning meat, brewing, flour- and corn-milling, and the
making of macaroni.

BUENOS AYRES

[Illustration: The most prosperous part of South America.]

BUENOS AYRES, the capital of Argentina, is the largest city not only
in South America but in the whole southern hemisphere. The La Plata,
at whose mouth it stands, affords navigation into all the northern
parts of the republic, as well as into the neighbouring states of
Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia. The riverside at Buenos Ayres
is at all times of the year a perfect forest of masts and smoke-stacks
belonging to the shipping that supplies this navigation. Recently, at
a cost of $25,000,000, the river, which here is shallow, has been
deepened and new wharves and docks have been built, and ocean-going
vessels of the deepest draught (which formerly used to be lightened
fourteen miles away) can now unload or be loaded right in the very
heart of the city. The total commerce of the republic amounts to
$200,000,000 or $225,000,000 a year, and of this trade Buenos Ayres
transacts seven eighths in imports and three fifths in exports. The
amount of this trade secured by the United States is about a tenth,
running from $12,000,000 to $24,000,000. In 1896 it was only
$12,500,000. The principal export trade is with France ($24,000,000),
Great Britain ($14,000,000),