In the Province of Santa Fé, the cradle of the agricultural settlement in the Argentine, there are at present 820 colonies and cultivated lands, of which the surface under seed embraces an area of 7,223,980 acres, divided as follows: Wheat, 3,259,920 acres; linseed, 2,037,990 acres; pea-nuts, 29,390 acres; lucerne, 1,787,280 acres; other crops, 111,400 acres.
The Province of Córdoba has furnished another of the Argentine’s agricultural surprises. Neglected, not so long ago, by the stream of immigration which set in for preference towards Santa Fé or Buenos Ayres, Córdoba began to attract the attention of labourers when the latter (discouraged by some calamitous years in Santa Fé) were drawn thither by the fertility of its soil, the scarcity of swamps, the regular rains, the cheap land, and the proximity of centres of consumption and ports of embarkation, and by the facilities of transport offered by an extensive network of railways. There the labourers set up their tents, and their numbers increased day by day; there they devoted themselves to the strenuous task of reclaiming the virgin soil, and there, in return, they obtained magnificent harvests, a veritable benediction of grateful nature.
The results surpassed all expectation; to such a degree, that to-day the Province of Córdoba is one of the first colonial centres of the Republic, and the Province which offers the most brilliant future to the cattle-breeder and the agriculturalist. To-day the transformation of the soil progresses so rapidly as to astonish both natives and foreigners.
To give some idea of the enormous development of this Province, it is enough to say that in 1898-1899 it counted 176 colonies and 71 settled estates. In 1905-1906 these figures were respectively 348 and 190. The size of these colonies has increased in the same proportions; in 1898-1899 their area was roughly 3,800,000 acres; it increased to 8,910,000. Of this enormous area, reclaimed and cultivated at the time of harvest in 1898-1899, some 3,150,000 acres represented wheat, 434,500 linseed, and 355,000 maize. We must also mention another important crop, which covers a large area of the Province of Córdoba; lucerne, which is represented by some 2,240,000 acres.