acres of land will be given to any person, on the sole condition of its being cultivated, and of their bringing a couple of oxen, a pair of horses, and the necessary agricultural implements. An extra inducement to settlers is held out by a promise of four pounds of meat daily, to be given gratuitously to cach family during the first year. The town of San José, near the banks of the Paraná, has about 100 inhabitants. The colonists must fence in their lots, make a well, and plant fifty trees: for five years they will be exempt from all taxes. The distribution of the lands will be made by the following committee:—Messrs. Aaron Castellanos, Pedro Ramayo, Colonel Rodriguez, Joaquin Lejarza, Santiago Recaño, Nicolas Sotomayor, and Francisco Oliva.

ENTRE-RIOS.

General Urquiza signalized his administration no less by his opening the rivers to the flags of all nations, than by his efforts for immigration. The province of Entre-Rios has two colonics, that of San José being the largest in the River Plate.

San José Colony stands 7 leagues north of the town of Concepcion, on the banks of the Uruguay: it has a convenient port, of safe anchorage, and the town which is springing up there is to be called after the discoverer of the New World. The colony counts 200 Swiss, 125 French, 5í Italian, and 15 German families, comprising 2280 persons. The returns for 1863, were 113 births, 33 deaths, 11 marriages. The professions of the colonists, were-22 shop-keepers, 16 masons, 17 carpenters, 7 shoemakers, 6 tailors, 6 blacksmiths, 4 tinsmiths, 5 mechanics, 1 gunsmith, 1 boilermaker, 1 sawyer, 2 mills, 1 steam-mill, 1 oil-press. The colony boasts a church, a school, and 257 brick houses, valued at £26,000 sterling: there is also a church in construction on the site of the intended town. The concessions are 16 cuadras (70 acres) cach. Uncultivated lots are sold at $10 (30s.) the cuadra, the purchaser being charged 18 per cent. interest per annum till the amount be discharged. There are 3,200 cuadras of land occupied, and 1,600 under cultivation; fruit-trees 112,000.

Besides cheese, melons, peas, beans, &c., in abundance.

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The crops of 1865 were so prolific that wheat gave from 35 to 40 fold, barley 30 to 50, and Indian corn three to four hundred fold. The returns

A «cuadra» of mani will give a yield of 34 tous, and the oil extracted from this nut is of excellent quality: hence this is a lucrative article. Ricino is a plant that grows in abundance almost without cultivation; it is now extensively planted, both for the raising of silk-worms and for the oil it contains; a cuadra will give two to three tons. The cultivation of cotton was tried, but without success; the great danger is that of drought, ' and if the irrigation be improved this industry will be again tried: as much as 25 of cotton have been got from a single plant well-watered. The tobacco crop is highly satisfactory, while requiring much care: a «cuadra» gives, sometimes, a ton of very good tobacco. The milk, butter, and cheese of the colony are first-rate, and some of the colonists make £10 to £60 sterling a year, out of these items, in supplying the towns of Concepcion, Paysandú, &c. The colonists also find a ready market for their eggs, and the supply of honey promises to be soon very considerable.

The Colony of Villa Urquiza is situate six leagues above the city of Paraná, on the Paraná river. The river bank here rises to a high hill. On ascending this hill we see a beautiful, undulating, country. The concessions are about 30 acres each, but there is no limit to the number that one man may own if he cultivate them. The houses are chiefly «ranchos, though some better houses of brick, with azotea roofs, are already built.

The chief produce is wheat. Every concession is fenced in, the forest affording the material; sometimes many concessions form one single field of wheat. When the year has been favorable the crop gives 20 to 25 bushels to the acre. It is reaped by machinery.

Cotton has not done well, not for any defect in the soil or climate, but for the uncertainty of obtaining hands on the emergency, for picking. But for this, cotton would pay better than wheat. Land, cattle, and horses, are very low in price. Pasturage, a little way out from the Colony, is abundant. The colonists send to market in large quantities whcat, maize, potatoes, butter, and cheese.

Mr. Forrest and Mr. Russell have bought largely of these lands, and will reap this year some hundreds of acres of wheat. In the course of another year a large accession of immigrants is expected.

The official returns for 1865 are

«Extent of concession, 6,700 acres: colonists, Swiss 20, Germans 32, French 8, Italians 5, and Belgians 6, families; in all comprising 355 persons, who occupy 232 chacra lots, and have plantations of peach, orange, plum, and fig trees. The colonists are made up of gardeners, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, shoemakers, and small dealers. The total stock does not exceed 2,500 head. The annual crop averages 3,000 fanegas wheat, besides maize, potatoes, vegetables, cotton, and tobacco. The tobacco is superior to that of Paraguay; it gave this year a fine crop, which was readily sold at 18d. per , wholesale. This industry is increasing. The American preceptor, Mr. Rau, gives the following report (1867):

It is a farming colony of about 560 persons, of whom 100 are natives, 200 European Roman Catholics, and the remaing 260 are Protestants, chiefly Europeans. A few Americans are also settled here, and arrangements are made for the settlement of many more American families. colony is in its infancy, and most of the farmers are poor. During the last few years some of the crops have not been good, and the first houses built by the immigrants have, in very few instances, giyen place to better ones.

The

We have received from the local Government a free concession of a building lot, 200 varas' in front, and 200 varas' in depth, making about eight English acres. This ground is finely situated. It is already fenced, and on it we have erected a small house, sufficient for a temporary residence for the Minister. A well has also been dug, in which abundance of good water has been found. We have a contract with a responsible party for the erection of the church, which will cost £300 sterling, and the edifice, when finished, will be occupied for a school also. The minister, being supported as such, gives his labours free as a teacher.»

The enterprise at Villa de Urquiza is one of the «misiones» under the charge of the Rev. W. Goodfellow, D.D., of this city, and from the society that he represents the colony receives help in all these projects.

Besides the above colonies, General Urquiza talks of establishing another on that part of his lands lying between his palace of San José and the town of Concepcion, the settlement to be bisected by a railway, with German settlers on one side, and Irish on the other.

BUENOS AYRES.

The Swiss Colony of Baradero is about two miles N.W. of the port of that Bame on the Paraná, standing on high and uneven ground in a bend of the river bluffs, and commanding a fine prospect. The Arrecifes river, which

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abounds in fish, washes one side of the concession, giving water at all seasons to the cattle; as the stream is only sixty feet wide there is easy passage to a beautiful island which has excellent pastures even in the greatest drought. This island is public property, and measures ten leagues by three.

In 1856 the first Swiss colonists arrived, and some of these hard-working men (according to the official report before Government) have been able to make as much as £800 to £1,000 sterling. They are intelligent gardeners, and the soil is so productive that they have raised sweet potatoes weighing as much as a pound and a-half each, while the melons, cabbages, and other vegetables are equally large, and grow in abundance. Potatoes constitute the most profitable of their crops. Some experiments in tobacco turned out so well that the growers were awarded a silver medal at the Agricultural Exhibition of Buenos Ayres in 1856. Mani and linseed have given good results, the first surprisingly so; still, the colonists find potatoes to need less care, and this is their great staple, yielding two crops a year; they also raise sweet potatoes, maize, wheat, and barley. Trees come on admirably, especially peaches, and so favored is the soil of the locality that even palm trees (which are always found in hotter latitudes) are readily acclimatized. Some of the settlers make butter and cheese, for which there is a constant market, either at Baradero or San Pedro; the latter port is six miles North of the colony. The boatmen of the coasting trade are also good customers of the colonists, buying their produce to take down to Buenos Ayres or elsewhere. The colonists know that the greater their produce the readier market they find.

The Municipality of Baradero provide new comers with board and lodging till putting them in possession of their lots. Every able-bodied man receives a lot, 200 varas on each side, about eight acres in extent, on condition of ditching it round, planting a few trees, making himself a hut or «rancho,» and cultivating the ground within a year; if a settler has grown-up sons, each of them may have a similar lot, merely applying to the Municipality for same. The colony counts 873 souls.

The concession may be put down at 10,000 acres, of which one-half is already allotted: there are 18 chacra lots of 12 acres, and 371 of eight

acres, besides 236 garden lots of two acres each; all these are fenced in with wood and wire, and have a ditch. The price is 800 paper dollars per cuadra (30s. per acre), or the rent $90 (15s.) per chacra lot of eight acres, per annum.

The colony has a school, 36 azotea houses, and 285 thatched ranchos; the plantations comprise 63,300 fruit-trees. There are 2 mills, 6 dairies, 3 masons, 3 carpenters, 2 blacksmiths.

The farming-stock comprises-750 cows, 9,000 sheep, 100 swine, 1,050 horses, 2,990 hens.

The practical proof of the success of this colony is given in a personal detail of the present condition of many of its members. Some of these poor, but persevering people, on their arrival had a little money, which they invested in cows, horses, bullocks, and fowl. For the first year, they lived in miserable mud ranchos, earning a subsistence by selling eggs and butter, and often having no meat to eat but biscacha flesh. The earliest comers were French-Swiss; but the greater number of those who arrived from 1858 to 1861 were German-Swiss. Out of the list of those given by Señor Piñero-to the number of 14-we select a few examples:

John Tenoud, French-Swiss, a farmer in his native land, of the Roman Catholic religion, and 49 years of age on his arrival here, with eleven in family, possesses now a capital of 300,000 paper dollars, the greater part of which is put to interest or laid out in sheep.

James Cardincaux, French-Swiss, Roman Catholic, farmer in his own country, 30 years of age on his arrival, with a family of six persons, has now a capital of 150,000 paper dollars placed at interest and invested in sheep.

Amongst the second lot of eight families came Claudio Jamer, a Frenchman, who had kept a sinall wine and flour store in France, 45 years old on his arrival, with one grown-up son, holds to-day a mill, worked by mules, in which he has invested 43,000 paper dollars, and is finishing the erection of a wind-mill, brought by himself during the past year from France. This mill cost 25,000 paper dollars; he has two plots of farmground; a house with one room of azotea roof, and two of straw. He is not in possession of money, but is entirely free from debt.