12,000 of which are owned by English companies, representing a capital investment of L170,000,000.

In other words, for the last forty years Argentina has built railways at the rate of over a mile a day, and in 1907, 1908, and 1909 her average rate per day was nearly three miles.  This means that owing to the extension of railways during this last year alone, over a million more acres of land could have been given up to the plough if suitable for the cultivation of corn.

When William Wheelwright first visited Argentina it was little more than an unknown land, whose inhabitants had no ambition, and no desire to acquire wealth—­except at the expense of broken heads.  There was a standard of wealth, but it lay in the number of cattle owned; land was of little value, save for feeding cattle, and therefore counted for naught, but cattle could be boiled down for tallow; bones and hides were also marketable commodities; the man, therefore, who possessed cattle possessed wealth.

The opening out of the country by railways soon changed the aspect of affairs.  The man who possessed cattle was no longer considered the rich man; it was he who owned leagues of land upon which wheat could be grown who became the potentially rich man; he, by cutting up his land and renting it to the immigrants, who were beginning to flock in in an endless stream to the country, found that riches were being accumulated for him without much exertion on his part.  He took a risk inasmuch as he received payment in kind only.  Therefore, when the immigrants did well, so did he, and as many thousands of immigrants have become rich, it follows that the land proprietors have become immensely so.  It was the railways which created this possibility, and endowed the country by rendering it practicable to grow corn where cattle only existed before, but many Argentines to-day forget what they owe to the railway pioneers; it is the railways, and the railways only, which render the splendid and yearly increasing exports possible.

In 1858 cattle formed 25 per cent. of the total wealth of Argentina, but in 1885 cattle only represented 18 per cent. of the total wealth, railways having made it possible during those thirty years to utilise lands for other purposes than cattle-feeding.  Let it be clearly understood, the total value of cattle had not decreased; far from that, the cattle had increased in value during the above period to the extent of L48,000,000, and to-day cattle, sheep, horses, mules, pigs, goats and asses represent a value of nearly L130,000,000.  The following table shows how great the improvement has been in Argentine animals:—­

Per Head. 
Cattle in 1885 were valued at an average of  $13[B]
"      1908        "      "      "         32
Sheep  in 1885        "      "      "          2
"      1908        "      "      "          4
Horses in 1885        "      "      "         11
1908        "      "      "         25

Notwithstanding these increased valuations per head, and the larger number of animals in the country, the value created by man’s labour far outweighs the increased value of mere breeding animals.