grazing and wheat-growing.

Cattle-growing is the chief employment, and the cost per head of rearing
stock is practically nothing. For want of better means of transportation
the shipments of live beef are not very heavy; the quality of the beef
is poor, and until recently there have been no adequate facilities for
getting it to market.[66] A small amount of refrigerator beef and a
large amount of jerked beef are exported, however. Near the markets,
there are large plants in which the hides, horns, tallow, and meat are
utilized--the last being converted to the famous "beef extract," which
finds a market all over the world.

The sheep industry is on a much better business basis. Both the wool and
the mutton have been improved by cross-breeding with good stock. As a
result the trade in mutton and wool has increased by leaps and bounds;
and nearly three million sheep carcasses are landed at the other ports
of Brazil, at Cuba, and at various European states. The wool is bought
mainly by Germany and France, but the United States is a heavy
purchaser. The quality of the fibre, formerly very poor, year by year is
improving.

Wheat, the staple product, is grown mainly within a radius of four
hundred miles around the mouth of Plate River. The area of cultivation
is increasing as the facilities for transportation are extended and,
little by little, is encroaching on the grazing lands. The wheat
industry is carried on very largely by German and Italian colonists.
Flax, grown for the seed, is a very large export crop. Maize, partly for
export and partly for home consumption, is also grown.

The timber resources, chiefly in Paraguay and the Gran Chaco, are very
great, but for want of means of transportation the timber-trade cannot
successfully compete with that of Central America and Mexico. Workable
gold and silver ores are abundant along the Andean cordillera; gold,
silver, and copper are exported to Europe. A poor quality of lignite
occurs in several provinces, but there are no available mines yielding
coal suitable for making steam. There are petroleum wells near Mendoza.

Most of the manufactures pertain to the preparation of cattle products,
although a considerable amount of coarse textiles are made in the larger
cities from the native cotton and wool. Hats, paper (made from grass),
and leather goods are also made. In general, all manufactures are
hampered by the difficulties of getting good fuel at a low price.

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