Other machines dig
holes for fence posts at the rate of fifty holes per hour, and they can
be so accurately gauged that the posts may be firmly fixed without
expending much labour in ramming.
The naphtha engine is likewise used with great advantage for traction
purposes. A striking instance of this is to be found at Rio Gallegos,
where many naphtha engines are engaged in the work of carrying wool over
a track of more than 300 kilometres, a feat which would be quite
impossible with animal labour, owing to the rocky and broken condition
of the roads.
As the Santa Fe Land Company owns a great diversity of land, they have
used both the steam traction and the naphtha engines, and time will show
which machine is to be recommended.
It is a pity that the agricultural implement importers of Buenos Aires
should have recently formed themselves into a ring to lift prices,
because their doing so will certainly tend to lessen the progress which
agriculture is making in the Argentine. These combinations, however,
will not deter the Company from continuing its "march of progress," but
it comes hard on the colonist, who, after all, is the chief factor in
building up the fortunes of the great importing houses of Buenos Aires.
One of the greatest competitors of the British-built traction engine is
the Hart-Parr oil engine, a splendid agricultural tool, which is
invaluable where ordinary fuel is not easily procurable.
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