is agent should be in constant attendance,
because the after results greatly depend upon the care with which the
seeding has been done. When the colonist's contract is completed he
moves on to another part, and the owner, who has year by year received a
percentage of the crops, takes back his land. Considerable outlay has
now to be made in fences, wells, and buildings; the more there are of
these the better, the land will carry a larger head of cattle and the
control of them is easy when the camp has been properly divided.

The colonists are generally Italians. They are an industrious and kindly
people, hardy and quiet, well content with their surroundings, careful
and frugal in their living, and many thousands could go back to their
own country with wealth which has been acquired by constant and
assiduous attention to the economies of life.

It has often been said that an Englishman will starve where an Italian
will thrive, and in some respects this is true; but it would be better
expressed if it were stated that an Italian can adapt himself to
circumstances better than an Englishman. At the same time, I doubt if an
Italian would come off best were the two placed on a desert island where
instantaneous action, grit, and endurance were called for.

Many things are said of an Englishman, and none fits his character
better than that which gives him the privilege of "grumbling," and this
characteristic becomes more marked when he is able to grumble with one
of his own kith and kin. I have heard Argentines praise Englishmen, who,
they say, manage their estancias far and away beyond all others, but at
the same time they have told me that they would never allow two
Englishmen on their place at once.

It has been said that many of the immigrants do not intend to settle in
the country. Probably this idea has gained ground on account of the
large numbers of the labouring population, who are attracted to
Argentina by the high wages ruling during the harvest time, and then
find it pays them to go home and secure the European harvest, but
generally these men come out again to stay. They have acquired a
knowledge of the country, and often enough have also acquired an
interest in some land, and they return, bringing their families, to
adopt Argentina as their home--for a period at least.

A glance at the statistics prepared by the authorities in Buenos Aires
shows that during the last fifty-two years 4,250,980 persons entered as