For the Monthly Magazine. NOTES written during a late Residence at BUENOS AYRES, by an English Gentleman, formerly of Bene't College, Cambridge.

(Continued from No. 353, p. 308.)

N the corn farms, wheat, barley,

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covered with fine vegetable mould, varying little in quality, except from its situation being more or less dry. On digging deep tosca, a kind of indurated clay, which contains lime, is found. The shore of the river is a fine sand, with here and there lumps of tosca, as

A few miles from the town is found plaster

plaster of Paris, of a good quality, and in some parts vast beds of shells which are burnt into lime. Neither on the surface of the vast plain from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza, nor in digging wells of any depth, is a stone of the smallest size to be found.

The ground is scratched over with a rude plough, and the seed sown and harrowed in. None of the land is fenced, except gardens and peach grounds. Wheat, to which the soil is very favourable, produces about thirty-six bushels per acre; barley about the same, then the land is left to rest. There is no succession of crops. The quantity of seed is surprisingly small; two or three pecks an acre, according as it is sown early or late, are sufficient. With all these advantages the farmers are poor. They pay first-fruits and tithes; labour is high, and the market narrow and precarious.

Barley generally sells at from 2s. 6d. to 3s. sterling per bushel, and wheat at from 3s. to 3s. 6d. Yet the bread, which is very good, and made with leaven, is generally about 3d. the pound. This arises from the high price of labour and firing, and the taxes on bakehouses.

There are no barns, grain is trodden out in the open air by horses, and then ill dressed in the wind. The bakers buy the wheat and grind it with mules, which work in a small circle unshod. The mill-stones are badly cut, and uncovered. There are no wind-mills in Buenos Ayres.

Grain is sometimes entirely destroyed by weevils, which in this mild climate multiply astonishingly.

Though they have plenty of wool from their sheep, neither the farmers nor their wives ever think of spinning it, but go to the town to buy their few miserable garments, whilst their dirty, lazy children run about half naked.

Estancias occupy a large portion of these immense plains, where not a tree is to be seen. These are covered with luxuriant grass, which at times, in summer, is burnt to dust. Beyond them are found only roving Indians, ostriches, cattle, and horses-which have no master.

These estancias raise vast quantities of black cattle, horses, and mules, some of which are driven to market for sale, and some slain for their hides and tallow. Many who live on those farms possess several thousand head of cattle,

and are content to exist, from year to year, in a mud cottage, never tasting bread, nor lying down on any thing better than an ox hide. They can hardly be called civilized beings, as they can do nothing but ride on horseback, throw the laso and balls, and kill and flay oxen. Tables they have none, and use in the place of chairs, the heads of horses and oxen.

Their famous nooses or slings consist of three balls, tied by three thongs of hides, each eighteen inches long, which meet in the middle. They are used on horseback, one of these balls is taken in the hand and the other two swung over the head for a few moments, and then thrown at the object with great force. They will hurl them with an unerring aim, and entangle and tie together the legs of a horse or ox, at a distance of thirty or forty yards. The laso, which is of hide rope, very long, is a noose running in an iron ring. This they will throw with astonishing dexterity, so as to catch the head or feet of any animal, though running, and they riding full gallop after it.

There are numerous brick-grounds in the vicinity of the towns. Firing being scarce they are compelled to use straw, weeds, &c. and the bones and carcases of oxen, horses, and sheep. The heads and feet of the cattle killed for the town, are piled upon the killing grounds for sale, as a regular article for firing. Two or three hundred carcases of horses may be sometimes seen near a brick kiln. The same fuel is used for burning lime, and for this purpose sheep are sometimes slaughtered at the door of the kiln, and im-' mediately thrown in to burn.

The bakers burn chiefly a kind of thistle, which covers some parts of the country, and are its only forests. The rest of the inhabitants burn wood brought from the north side of the river, and the Parana, &c. and some peach-wood grown near the town. Smiths, &c. use coals from England, the demand for which appears to increase, and our merchants take good care to supply it.

Very good hats are made in the town, by a Frenchman, yet, though furs are cheap, the manufactory would not answer, were it not that imported hats pay fifty per cent. duty.

There are one large, and some small distilleries in the town. A cannon foundery and a manufactory of small

arms