Chapter XXXIII: Part 33

Cattle-raising naturally became the principal industry of this region soon after its settlement by the Spaniards, and sheep-raising on a profitable basis was developed about the middle of the 19th century. Toward the end of that century the exports of wool, live-stock and dressed meats reached enormous proportions. There is a large export of jerked beef (_tasajo_) to Brazil and Cuba, and of live-stock to Europe, South Africa and neighbouring South American republics. Much attention also has been given to raising horses, asses, mules, swine and goats, all of which thrive on these grassy plains. Butter and cheese-making have gained considerable prominence in the province since 1890, and butter has become an article of export. Little attention had been given to cereals up to 1875, but subsequently energetic efforts were made to increase the production of wheat, Indian corn, linseed, barley, oats and alfalfa, so that by the end of the century the exports of wheat and flour had reached a considerable value. In 1895 there were 3,400,000 acres under cultivation in the province, and in 1900 the area devoted to wheat alone aggregated 1,960,000 acres. Fruit-growing also has made good progress, especially on the islands of the Paraná delta, and Argentine peaches, pears, strawberries, grapes and figs are highly appreciated.

The navigation of the Paraná is at all times difficult, and is impossible for the larger ocean-going steamers. The greater part of the trade of the northern and western provinces, therefore, must pass through the ports of Buenos Aires and Ensenada, at which an immense volume of business is concentrated. All the great trunk railways of the republic pass through the province and converge at these ports, and from them a number of transatlantic steamship lines carry away the products of its fertile soil. The province is also liberally supplied with branch railways. In the far south the new port of Bahia Blanca has become prominent in the export of wool and wheat.

The principal cities and towns of the province (apart from Buenos Aires and its suburbs of Belgrano and Flores) are its capital La Plata; Bahia Blanca, San Nicolas, a river port on the Paraná 150 m. by rail north-west of Buenos Aires, with a population (1901) of 13,000; Campana (pop. 5419 in 1895), the former river port of Buenos Aires on one of the channels of the Paraná, 51 m. by rail north-west of that city, and the site of the first factory in Argentina (1883) for freezing mutton for export; Chivilcoy, an important interior town, with a population (1901) of 15,000; Pergamino (9540 in 1895), a northern inland railway centre; Mar del Plata, a popular seaside resort 250 m. by rail south of Buenos Aires; Azul (9494), Tandil (7088), Chascomús (5667), Mercedes (9269), and Barracas al Sud (10,185), once the centre of the jerked beef industries.

The early history of the province of Buenos Aires was a struggle for supremacy over the other provinces for a period of two generations. Its large extent of territory was secured through successive additions by conquest of adjoining Indian territories south and west, the last additions being as late as 1879. Buenos Aires became a province of the Confederation in 1820, and adopted a constitution in 1854, which provides for its administration by a governor and legislature of two chambers, both chosen by popular vote. An unsuccessful revolt in 1880 against the national government led to the federalization of the city of Buenos Aires, and the selection of La Plata as the provincial capital, the republic assuming the public indebtedness of the provinces at that time as an indemnification. Before the new capital was finished, however, the province had incurred further liabilities of ten millions sterling, and has since then been greatly handicapped in its development in consequence.

(A. J. L.)

BUENOS AIRES, a city and port of Argentina, and capital of the republic, in 34° 36' 21" S. lat. and 58° 21' 33" W. long., on the west shore of the La Plata estuary, about 155 m. above its mouth, and 127 m. W. by N. from Montevideo. The estuary at this point is 34 m. wide, and so shallow that vessels can enter the docks only through artificial channels kept open by constant dredging. Previously to the construction of the new port, ocean-going vessels of over 15 ft. draught were compelled to anchor in the outer roads some 12 m. from the city, and communication with the shore was effected by means of steam tenders and small boats, connecting with long landing piers, or with carts driven out from the beach. The city is built upon an open grassy plain extending inland from the banks of the estuary, and north from the Riachuelo or Matanzas river where the "Boca" port is located. Its average elevation is about 65 ft. above sea-level. The federal district, which includes the city and its suburbs and covers an area of 72 sq. m., was detached from the province of Buenos Aires by an act of congress in 1880. With the construction of the new port and reclamation of considerable areas of the shallow water frontage, the area of the city has been greatly extended below the line of the original estuary banks. The streets of the old city, which are narrow and laid out to enclose rectangular blocks of uniform size, run nearly parallel with the cardinal points of the compass, but this plan is not closely followed in the new additions and suburbs. This uniformity in plan, combined with the level ground and the style of buildings first erected, gave to the city an extremely monotonous and uninteresting appearance, but with its growth in wealth and population, greater diversity and better taste in architecture have resulted.

The prevailing style of domestic architecture is that introduced from Spain and used throughout all the Spanish colonies--the grouping of one-storey buildings round one or two _patios_, which open on the street through a wide doorway. These residences have heavily barred windows on the street, and flat roofs with [v.04 p.0698] parapets admirably adapted for defence. The domiciliation of wealthy foreigners, and the introduction of foreign customs and foreign culture, have gradually modified the style of architecture, both public and domestic, and modern Buenos Aires is adorned with many costly and attractive public edifices and residences. French renaissance, lavishly decorated, has become the prevailing style. The Avenida Alvear is particularly noted for the elegance of its private residences, and the new Avenida de Mayo for its display of elaborately ornamented public and business edifices, while the suburban districts of Belgrano and Flores are distinguished for the attractiveness of their country-houses and gardens. A part of the population is greatly overcrowded, one-fifth living in _conventillos_, or tenement-houses.

Among the city's many _plazas_, or squares, twelve are especially worthy of mention, viz.: 25 de Mayo (formerly Victoria) on which face the Government-House and Cathedral, San Martin (or Retiro), Lavalle, Libertad, Lorea, Belgrano, 6 de Junio, Once de Setiembre, Independencia (formerly Conceptión), Constitución, Caridad and 29 de Deciembre. These vary in size from one to three squares, or 4 to 12 acres each, and are handsomely laid out with flowers, shrubbery, walks and shade trees. There are also two elaborately laid out _alamedas_, the Recoleta and the Paseo de Julio, the latter on the river front and partially absorbed by the new port works, and the great park at Palermo, officially called 3 de Febrero, which contains 840 acres, beautifully laid out in drives, footpaths, lawns, gardens and artificial lakes. In all, the _plazas_ and parks of Buenos Aires cover an area of 960 acres.

The cathedral, which is one of the largest in South America, dating from 1752, resembles the Madeleine of Paris in design, and its classical portico facing the Plaza 25 de Mayo has twelve stately Corinthian columns supporting an elaborately sculptured pediment. The archbishop's palace (Buenos Aires became an archiepiscopal see in 1866) adjoins the cathedral. There are about twenty-five Roman Catholic churches in the city, one of the richest and most popular of which is the Merced on Calle Reconquista, and four Protestant churches--English, Scottish Presbyterian, American Methodist and German Lutheran. Twenty asylums for orphans and indigent persons and one for lunatics are maintained at public expense and by private religious associations, while the demand for organized medical and surgical treatment is met by fifteen well-appointed hospitals, having an aggregate of 2600 beds, and treating 17,000 patients annually. Of these, five belong to foreign nationalities. The city has six cemeteries covering 230 acres.

Among the more noteworthy public buildings are the Casa Rosada (government-house), facing the Plaza 25 de Mayo and occupying in part the site of the fort built by Garay in 1580; the new congress hall on Calle Callao and Avenida de Mayo, finished in 1906 at a cost of about £1,300,000; the new municipal hall on Avenida de Mayo; the _bolsa_ or exchange, distributing reservoir, mint, and some of the more modern educational buildings. Higher education is represented by the university of Buenos Aires, with its several faculties, including law and medicine, and 3562 students (1901), four national colleges, three normal schools and various technical schools. There are, also, a national library, a national museum, a zoological garden and an aquarium. The people are fond of music, the drama and amusements, and devote much time and expense to diversions of a widely varied character, from Italian opera to horse-racing and _pelota_. They have two or three large public baths, and a large number of social, sporting and athletic clubs. The Porteños, as the residents of Buenos Aires are called, are accustomed to call their city the "Paris of America," and not without reason. Buenos Aires has become the principal manufacturing centre of the republic, and its industrial establishments are numbered by thousands and their capital by hundreds of millions of dollars.

The growth of Buenos Aires since settled conditions have prevailed, and especially since its federalization, has been very rapid, and the city has finally outstripped all rivals and become the largest city of South America. At the time of its first authentic census in 1869, it had a population of 177,767. In 1887, when the suburbs of Belgrano and Flores with an aggregate population of 28,000 were annexed, its population without this increment was estimated at 404,000. In 1895 the national census gave the population as 663,854, and in 1904 a municipal census increased it to 950,891. At the close of 1905 the national statistical office estimated it at 1,025,653. The excess of births over deaths is unusually large (about 14 per thousand in 1905). The city has about one-fifth of the population of the whole republic. The government is vested in an _intendente municipal_ (mayor) appointed by the national executive with the approval of the senate, and a _concejo deliberante_ (legislative council) elected by the people and composed of two councillors from each parish. The police force is a military organization under the control of the national executive, and the higher municipal courts are subject to the same authority. Every ratepayer, whether foreigner or native, has the right to vote in municipal elections and to serve in the municipal council.

The water-supply is drawn from the estuary at Belgrano and conducted 3½ m. to the Recoleta, where three great settling basins, with an aggregate capacity of 12,000,000 gallons, and six acres of covered filters, are located. It is then pumped to the great distributing reservoir at Calles Córdoba and Viamonte, which covers four acres and has a capacity of 13,500,000 gallons. These works were begun in 1873. Up to 1873, when the water and drainage works were initiated by English engineers and contractors, there were no public sewers, and the sanitary state of the city was indescribably bad. The cholera epidemic of 1867-1868, with 15,000 victims, and the yellow fever epidemic of 1871, with 26,000 victims, were greatly intensified by these insanitary conditions. The construction of the sewers lasted about 19 years, when in 1892 the water and drainage works were taken over by the government, and are now administered at public expense and at a profit. The main sewer is 16 m. long and extends southward beyond Quilmes. The total cost of the two systems exceeded six millions sterling. Buenos Aires is now provided with a good water-supply, and its sanitary condition compares favourably with that of other great cities, the annual death-rate being about 18 per thousand, against 27 per thousand in 1887. Its mean annual temperature is 64° Fahr., and its annual rainfall 34 in.

The lighting includes both gas and electricity, the former dating from 1856. Previously to that time street lighting had been effected at first with lamps burning mares' grease, and then with tallow candles. The streets were at first paved with cobble-stones, then with dressed granite paving-stones (parallelepipedons), and finally with wood and asphalt. The tram service is in the hands of nine private companies, operating 313 m. of track (31st of December 1905), on almost five-sevenths of which electric traction is employed. The city is the principal terminus and port for nearly all the trunk railway lines of the republic, which have large passenger stations at the Retiro, Once de Setiembre, and Constitución plazas, and are connected with the central produce market and the new Madero port. The great central produce market at Barracas al Sud (_Mercado Central de Frutos_), whose lands, buildings, railway sidings, machinery and mole cost £750,000, is designed to handle the pastoral and agricultural products of the country on a large scale, while 20 markets in the city meet the needs of local consumers.

The most important feature of the port of Buenos Aires is the "Madero docks," constructed to enlarge and improve its shipping facilities. Improvements had been, begun in 1872 at the "Boca," as the port on the Riachuelo is called, and nearly £1,500,000 was spent there in landing facilities and dredging a channel 12 m. in length, to deep water. These improvements were found insufficient, and in 1887 work was begun on plans executed by Sir John Hawkshaw for a series of four docks and two basins in front of the city, occupying 3 m. of reclaimed shore-line, and connected with deep water by two dredged channels. The north basin is provided with two dry docks, and the new quays are equipped with 24 warehouses, hydraulic cranes, and 28 m. of railway sidings and connexions. The total cost of the new port works [v.04 p.0699] up to 1908 was about £8,000,000 sterling ($40,000,000 gold). In September of that year it was decided by congress to borrow £5,000,000 for still further extensions which were found to be required. The channels to deep water require constant dredging because of the great quantity of silt deposited by the river, and on this and allied purposes an expenditure of £560,000 was voted in 1908. In 1907 there were 29,178 shipping entries in the port, with an aggregate of 13,335,737 tons, the merchandise movement being 4,360,000 tons imports and 2,900,000 tons of produce exports. The revenues for 1907 were $5,452,000 gold, and working expenses, $2,213,000 gold, the profit ($3,229,000) being equal to about 8% on the cost of construction.

_History._--Three attempts were made to establish a colony where the city of Buenos Aires stands. The first was in 1535 by Don Pedro de Mendoza with a large and well-equipped expedition from Spain, which, through mismanagement and the hostility of the Indians, resulted in complete failure. An expedition sent up the river by Mendoza founded Asunción, and thither went the colonists from his "Santa Maria de Buenos Ayres" when that settlement was abandoned. The second was in 1542 by a part of the expedition from Spain under Cabeza de Vaca, but with as little success. The third was in 1580 by Don Juan de Garay, governor of Paraguay, who had already established a half-way post at Santa Fé in 1573, and from this attempt dates the foundation of the city. The need of a port near the sea, where supplies from Spain could be received and ships provisioned, was keenly felt by the Spanish colonists at Asunción, and Garay's expedition down the Paraná in 1580 had that special object in view. Garay built a fort and laid out a town in the prescribed Spanish style above Mendoza's abandoned settlement, giving it the name of "Ciudad de la Santissima Trinidad," but retaining Mendoza's descriptive name for the port in appreciation of the agreeable and invigorating atmosphere of that locality. Buenos Aires remained a dependency of Asunción until 1620, when the Spanish settlements of the La Plata region were divided into three provinces, Paraguay, Tucuman and Buenos Aires, and Garay's "city" became the capital of the latter and also the seat of a new bishopric. The increasing population and trade of the La Plata settlements naturally contributed to the importance and prosperity of Buenos Aires, but Spain seems to have taken very little interest in the town at that time. Peru still dazzled the imagination with her stores of gold and silver, and the king and his councillors and merchants had no thought for the little trading station on the La Plata, for which one small shipment of supplies each year was at first thought sufficient. The proximity of the Portuguese settlements of Brazil and the unprotected state of the coast, however, made smuggling easy, and the colonists soon learned to supply their own needs in that way. The heavy seigniorage tax on gold and silver, and the costs of transportation by way of Panama, also sent a stream of contraband metal from Charcas to Buenos Aires, where it found eager buyers among the Portuguese traders from Brazil, who even founded the town of Colonia on the opposite bank of the estuary to facilitate their hazardous traffic. In time the magnitude of these operations attracted attention at Madrid and efforts were made to suppress them, but without complete success until more liberal provisions were made to promote trade between Spain and her colonies. In 1776 the Rio de la Plata provinces were erected into a vice-royalty, and Buenos Aires became its capital. Two years later the old commercial restrictions were abolished and a new code was promulgated, so liberal in character compared with the old that it was called the "free trade regulations." Under the old system all intercourse with foreign countries had been prohibited, with the exception of Great Britain and Portugal--the former having a contract (1715 to 1739) to introduce African slaves, and permission to send one shipload of merchandise each year to certain colonial ports, and the latter's Brazilian colonies having permission to import from Buenos Aires each year 2000 fanegas of wheat, 500 quintals of jerked beef and 500 of tallow. The African slaves introduced into Buenos Aires in this way were limited to 800 a year, and were the only slaves of that character ever received except some from Brazil after 1778, when greater commercial activity in the port created a sudden demand for labourers. Under the new regulations 9 ports in Spain and 24 in the colonies were declared _puertos habilitados_, or ports of entry, and trade between them was permitted, though under many restrictions. The effect of this change may be seen in the exportation of hides to the mother country, which had been only 150,000 a year before 1778, but rose to 700,000 and 800,000 a year after that date. (For the later history of the city see ARGENTINA.)

(A. J. L.)

BUFF (from Fr. _buffle_, a buffalo), a leather originally made from the skin of the buffalo, now also from the skins of other animals, of a dull pale yellow colour, used for making the buffcoat or jerkin, a leathern military coat. The old 3rd Foot regiment of the line in the British army (now the East Kent Regiment), and the old 78th Foot (now 2nd battalion Seaforth Highlanders), are called the "Buffs" and the "Ross-shire Buffs" respectively, from the yellow or buff-colour of their facings. The term is commonly used now of the colour alone.

BUFFALO, a city and port of entry, and the county-seat of Erie county, New York, U.S.A., the second city in population in the state, and the eighth in the United States, at the E. extremity of Lake Erie, and at the upper end of the Niagara river; distant by rail from New York City 423 m., from Boston 499 m., and from Chicago 540 m.

The site of the city, which has an area of 42 sq. m., is a broad, undulating tract, rising gradually from the lake to an elevation of from 50 to 80 ft., its altitude averaging somewhat less than 600 ft. above sea-level. The high land and temperate climate, and the excellent drainage and water-supply systems, make Buffalo one of the most healthy cities in the United States, its death-rate in 1900 being 14.8 per thousand, and in 1907 15.58. As originally platted by Joseph Ellicott, the plan of Buffalo somewhat resembled that of Washington, but the plan was much altered and even then not adhered to. Buffalo to-day has broad and spacious streets, most of which are lined by trees, and many small parks and squares. The municipal park system is one of unusual beauty, consisting of a chain of parks with a total area of about 1030 acres, encircling the city and connected by boulevards and driveways. The largest is Delaware Park, about 365 acres, including a lake of 46½ acres, in the north part of the city; the north part of the park was enclosed in the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition of 1901. Adjoining it is the Forest Lawn cemetery, in which are monuments to President Millard Fillmore, and to the famous Seneca chief Red Jacket (1751-1830), a friend of the whites, who was faithful when approached by Tecumseh and the Prophet, and warned the Americans of their danger; by many he has been considered the greatest orator of his race. Among the other parks are Cazenovia Park, Humboldt Park, South Park on the Lake Shore, and "The Front" on a bluff overlooking the source of the Niagara river; in the last is Fort Porter (named in honour of Peter B. Porter), where the United States government maintains a garrison.

_Principal Buildings._--Buffalo is widely known for the beauty of its residential sections, the houses being for the most part detached, set well back from the street, and surrounded by attractive lawns. Among the principal buildings are the Federal building, erected at a cost of $2,000,000; the city and county hall, costing $1,500,000, with a clock tower 245 ft. high; the city convention hall, the chamber of commerce, the builders' exchange, the Masonic temple, two state armouries, the Prudential, Fidelity Trust, White and Mutual Life buildings, the Teck, Star and Shea's Park theatres, and the Ellicott Square building, one of the largest office structures in the world; and, in Delaware Park, the Albright art gallery, and the Buffalo Historical Society building, which was originally the New York state building erected for the Pan-American Exposition held in 1901. Among the social clubs the Buffalo, the University, the Park, the Saturn and the Country clubs, and among the hotels the Iroquois, Lafayette, Niagara and Genesee, may be especially mentioned. There are many handsome churches, including St Joseph's (Roman Catholic) and St Paul's (Protestant Episcopal) cathedrals, [v.04 p.0700] and Trinity (Protestant Episcopal), the Westminster Presbyterian, the Delaware Avenue Baptist, and the First Presbyterian churches.

_Education._--In addition to the usual high and grammar schools, the city itself supports a city training school for teachers, and a system of night schools and kindergartens. Here, too, is a state normal school. The university of Buffalo (organized in 1845) comprises schools of medicine (1845), law (1887), dentistry (1892), and pharmacy (1886). Canisius College is a Roman Catholic (Jesuit) institution for men (established in 1870 and chartered in 1883), having in 1907 a college department and an academic (or high school) department, and a library of about 26,000 volumes. Martin Luther Seminary, established in 1854, is a theological seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Among the best-known schools are the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Buffalo Seminary, the Franklin and the Heathcote schools, Holy Angels and St Mary's academies, St Joseph's Collegiate Institute, and St Margaret's school for girls. The Buffalo public library, founded in 1837, is housed in a fine building erected in 1887 (valued at $1,000,000), and contains about 300,000 books and pamphlets. Other important libraries, with the approximate number of their books, are the Grosvenor (founded in 1859), for reference (75,000 volumes and 7000 pamphlets); the John C. Lord, housed in the building of the Historical Society (10,620); the Law (8th judicial district) (17,000); the Catholic Institute (12,000); and the library of the Buffalo Historical Society (founded 1862) (26,600), now in the handsome building in Delaware Park used as the New York state building during the Pan-American Exposition of 1901. The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences has a museum in the public library building.

_Public Institutions._--The hospitals and the charitable and correctional institutions are numerous and are well administered. Many private institutions are richly endowed. Among the hospitals are a state hospital for the insane, the Erie county, the Buffalo general, the Children's, the United States marine (maintained by the Federal government), the German, the Homeopathic, the Women's, the German Deaconess and the Riverside hospitals, and the Buffalo hospital of the Sisters of Charity. Nurses' training schools are connected with most of these. Among the charitable institutions are the Home for the Friendless, the Buffalo, St Vincent's and St Joseph's orphan asylums, St John's orphan home, St Mary's asylum for widows and foundlings, and the Ingleside home for erring women. One of the most noteworthy institutions in the city is the Charity Organisation Society, with headquarters in Fitch Institute. Founded in 1877, it was the first in the United States, and its manifold activities have not only contributed much to the amelioration of social conditions in Buffalo, but have caused it to be looked to as a model upon which similar institutions have been founded elsewhere.

The first newspaper, the _Gazette_ (a weekly), was established in 1811 and became the _Commercial_, a daily, in 1835. The first daily was the _Courier_, established in 1831. There were in 1908 eleven daily papers published, three of which were in German and two in Polish. The weekly papers include several in German, three in Polish, and one in Italian.

_Government and Population._--Buffalo is governed under an amended city charter of 1896 by which the government is vested in a bicameral city council, and a mayor elected for a term of four years. The mayor appoints the heads of the principal executive departments (health, civil service, parks, police and fire). The city clerk is elected by the city council. The municipality maintains several well-equipped public baths, and owns its water-supply system, the water being obtained from Lake Erie. The city is lighted by electricity generated by the water power of Niagara Falls, and by manufactured gas. Gas, obtained by pipe lines from the Ohio-Pennsylvania and the Canadian (Welland) natural gas fields, is also used extensively for lighting and heating purposes.

From the first census enumeration in 1820 the population has steadily and rapidly increased from about 2000 till it reached 352,387 inhabitants in 1900, and 423,715 (20% increase) in 1910. In 1900 there were 248,135 native-born and 104,252 foreign-born; 350,586 were white and only 1801 coloured, of whom 1698 were negroes. Of the native-born whites, 155,716 had either one or both parents foreign-born; and of the total population 93,256 were of unmixed German parentage. Of the foreign-born population 36,720 were German, the other large elements in their order of importance being Polish, Canadian, Irish, the British (other than Irish). Various sections of the poorer part of the city are occupied almost exclusively by the immigrants from Poland, Hungary and Italy.

_Communications and Commerce._--Situated almost equidistant from Chicago, Boston and New York, Buffalo, by reason of its favourable location in respect to lake transportation and its position on the principal northern trade route between the East and West, has become one of the most important commercial and industrial centres in the Union. Some fourteen trunk lines have terminals at, or pass through, Buffalo. Tracks of a belt line transfer company encircle the city, and altogether there are more than 500 m. of track within the limits of Buffalo. Of great importance also is the lake commerce. Almost all the great steamship transportation lines of the Great Lakes have an eastern terminus at Buffalo, which thus has direct passenger and freight connexion with Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and the "Head of the Lakes" (Duluth-Superior). With the latter port it is connected by the Great Northern Steamship Company, a subsidiary line of the Great Northern railway, the passenger service of which is carried on by what are probably the largest and finest inland passenger steamships in existence. The tonnage of the port of Buffalo is considerably more than 5,000,000 tons annually. With a water front of approximately 20 m. and with 8 to 10 m. of wharfs, the shipping facilities have been greatly increased by the extensive harbour improvements undertaken by the Federal government. These improvements comprise a series of inner breakwaters and piers and an outer breakwater of stone and cement, 4 m. in length, constructed at a cost of more than $2,000,000. Another artery of trade of great importance is the Erie Canal, which here has its western terminus, and whose completion (1825) gave the first impetus to Buffalo's commercial growth. With the Canadian shore Buffalo is connected by ferry, and by the International bridge (from Squaw Island), which cost $1,500,000 and was completed in 1873.

It is as a distributing centre for the manufactured products of the East to the West, and for the raw products of the West to the East, and for the trans-shipment from lake to rail and vice versa, that Buffalo occupies a position of greatest importance. It is one of the principal grain and flour markets in the world. Here in 1843 Joseph Dart erected the first grain elevator ever constructed. In 1906 the grain elevators had a capacity of between twenty and thirty millions of bushels, and annual receipts of more than 200,000,000 bushels. The receipts of flour approximate 10,000,000 barrels yearly. More than 10,000,000 head of live stock are handled in a year in extensive stock-yards (75 acres) at East Buffalo; and the horse market is the largest in America. Other important articles of commerce are lumber, the receipts of which average 200,000,000 ft. per annum; fish (15,000,000 lb annually); and iron ore and coal, part of which, however, is handled at Tonawanda, really a part of the port of Buffalo. Buffalo is the port of entry of Buffalo Creek customs district; in 1908 its imports were valued at $6,708,919, and its exports at $26,192,563.

_Manufactures._--As a manufacturing centre Buffalo ranks next to New York among the cities of the state. The manufactures were valued in 1900 at $122,230,061 (of which $105,627,182 was the value of the factory product), an increase of 22.2% over 1890; value of factory product in 1905, $147,377,873. The value of the principal products in 1900 was as follows: slaughtering and meat packing, $9,631,187 (in 1905 slaughtering and meat-packing $12,216,433, and slaughtering, not including meat-packing, $3,919,940); foundry and machine shop products, $6,816,057 (1905, $11,402,855); linseed oil, $6,271,170; cars and shop construction, $4,513,333 (1905, $3,609,471); malt liquors, $4,269,973 (1905, $5,187,216); soap and candles, $3,818,571 (in 1905, soap [v.04 p.0701] $4,792,915); flour and grist mill products, $3,263,697 (1905, $9,807,906); lumber and planing mill products, $3,095,760 (1905, $4,186,668); clothing, $3,246,723 (1905, $4,231,126); iron and steel products, $2,624,547. Other industrial establishments of importance include petroleum refineries, ship-yards, brick, stone and lime works, saddlery and harness factories, lithographing establishments, patent medicine works, chemical works, and copper smelters and refineries. Some of the plants are among the largest in existence, notably the Union and the Wagner Palace car works, the Union dry docks, the steel plants of the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, and the Larkin soap factory.

_History._--The first white men to visit the site of Buffalo were undoubtedly the adventurous French trappers and various Jesuit missionaries. Near here, on the east bank of the Niagara river at the mouth of Cayuga Creek, La Salle in 1679 built his ship the "Griffin," and at the mouth of the river built Fort Conti, which, however, was burned in the same year. In 1687 marquis de Denonville built at the mouth of the river a fort which was named in his honour and was the predecessor of the fortifications on or near the same site successively called Fort Niagara; and the neighbourhood was the scene of military operations up to the close of the War of Independence. As early as 1784 the present site of the city of Buffalo came to be known as "the Buffalo Creek region" either from the herds of buffalo or bison which, according to Indian tradition, had frequented the salt licks of the creek, or more probably from an Indian chief. A little later, possibly in 1788-1789, Cornelius Winney, an Indian trader, built a cabin near the mouth of the creek and thus became the first permanent white resident. Slowly other settlers gathered. The land was a part of the original Phelps-Gorham Purchase, and subsequently (about 1793) came into the possession of the Holland Land Company, being part of the tract known as the Holland Purchase. Joseph Ellicott, the agent of the company, who has been called the "Father of Buffalo," laid out a town in 1801-1802, calling it New Amsterdam, and by this name it was known on the company's books until about 1810. The name of Buffalo Creek or Buffalo, however, proved more popular; the village became the county-seat of Niagara county in 1808, and two years later the town of Buffalo was erected. Upon the outbreak of the second war with Great Britain, Buffalo and the region about Niagara Falls became a centre of active military operations; directly across the Niagara river was the British Fort Erie. It was from Buffalo that Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott (1782-1845) made his brilliant capture of the "Detroit" and "Caledonia" in October 1812; and on the 30th and 31st of December 1813 the settlement was attacked, captured, sacked, and almost completely destroyed by a force of British, Canadians and Indians under General Sir Phineas Riall (c. 1769-1851). After the cessation of hostilities, however, Buffalo, which had been incorporated as a village in 1813, was rapidly rebuilt. Its advantages as a commercial centre were early recognized, and its importance was enhanced on the opening up of the middle West to settlement, when Buffalo became the principal gateway for the lake routes. Here in 1818 was rebuilt the "Walk-in-the-Water," the first steamboat upon the Great Lakes, named in honour of a famous Wyandot Indian chief. In 1825 the completion of the Erie Canal with its western terminus at Buffalo greatly increased the importance of the place, which now rapidly outstripped and soon absorbed Black Rock, a village adjoining it on the N., which had at one time threatened to be a dangerous rival. In 1832 Buffalo obtained a city charter, and Dr Ebenezer Johnson (1786-1849) was chosen the first mayor. In that year, and again in 1834, a cholera epidemic caused considerable loss of life. At Buffalo in 1848 met the Free-Soil convention that nominated Martin van Buren for the presidency and Charles Francis Adams for the vice-presidency. Grover Cleveland lived in Buffalo from 1855 until 1884, when he was elected president, and was mayor of Buffalo in 1882, when he was elected governor of New York state. The Pan-American Exposition, in celebration of the progress of the Western hemisphere in the nineteenth century, was held there (May 1-November 2, 1901). It was during a reception in the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds that President McKinley was assassinated (September 6th); he died at the home of John G. Milburn, the president of the Exposition. In the house of Ansley Wilcox here Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office as president. A marble shaft 80 ft. high, in memory of McKinley, has been erected in Niagara Square.

See William Ketchum, _History of Buffalo_ (2 vols., Buffalo, 1864-1865); H.P. Smith, _History of Buffalo and Erie County_ (Syracuse, 1884); _Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society_ (Buffalo, 1879 et seq.); O. Turner, _History of the Holland Purchase_ (Buffalo, 1850); T.H. Hotchkin, _History of Western New York_ (New York, 1845); and the sketch in Lyman P. Powell's _Historic Towns of the Middle States_ (New York, 1901).

BUFFALO, a name properly pertaining to an aberrant species of cattle which has been kept in a state of domestication in India and Egypt from time immemorial, and had been introduced from the latter country into southern Europe. It is now taken, however, to include not only this species, whose native home is India, but all more or less nearly related animals.[1] Buffaloes are heavily built oxen, with sparsely haired skin, large ears, long, tufted tails, broad muzzles and massive angulated horns. In having only 13 pairs of ribs they resemble the typical oxen. African buffaloes all have the hair of the back directed backwards.

In the Cape buffalo, _Bos (Bubalus) caffer_, the horns do not attain an excessive length, but in old bulls are so expanded and thickened at the base as to form a helmet-like mass protecting the whole forehead. Several more or less nearly allied local races have been named; and in Eastern Africa the buffaloes (_B. caffer aequinoctialis_) have smaller horns, which do not meet in the middle line. From this animal, which is brown instead of black, there seems to be a transition towards the red dwarf buffalo (_B. nanus_) of West Africa, an animal scarcely more than two-thirds the size of its gigantic southern cousin, with relatively small, much flattened, upwardly curved horns. In South Africa buffaloes frequent reedy swamps, where they associate in herds of from fifty to a hundred or more individuals. Old bulls may be met with either alone or in small parties of from two or three to eight or ten. This buffalo formerly roamed in herds over the plains of Central and Southern Africa, always in the near vicinity of water, but the numbers are greatly diminished. In Cape Colony some herds are protected by the government in the eastern forest-districts. This species has never been domesticated, nor does there appear to have been any attempt to reduce it to service. Like its Indian ally it is fond of water, which it visits at regular intervals during the twenty-four hours; it also plasters itself with mud, which, when hardened by the sun, protects it from the bite of the gadflies which in spite of its thick hide seem to cause it considerable annoyance. It is relieved of a portion of the parasitic ticks, so common on the hides of thick-skinned animals, by means of the red-beaked rhinoceros birds, _Buphaga erythrorhynca_, a dozen or more of which may be seen partly perched on its horns and partly moving about on its back, and picking up the ticks on which they feed. The hunter is often guided by these birds in his search for the buffalo, but oftener still they give timely warning to their host of the dangerous proximity of the hunter, and have thus earned the title of "the buffalo's guardian birds."

In a wild state the typical Indian buffalo, _Bos (Bubalus) bubalis_, seems to be restricted to India and Ceylon, although some of the buffaloes found in the Malay Peninsula and Islands probably represent local races. The species has been introduced into Asia Minor, Egypt, Italy and elsewhere. The large size and wide separation of the horns, as well as the less thickly fringed ears, and the more elongated and narrow head, form marked points of distinction between the Asiatic and South African species. Moreover, all Asiatic buffaloes are distinguished from the African forms by having the hair on the fore-part of the back directed forwards; and these go far to support the views of those who would make them the types of a distinct subgenus, [v.04 p.0702] or genus, _Buffelus_. In Assam there formerly existed a local race, _B. bubalis macrocercus_, characterized by the horns, which are of immense size, being directed mainly outwards, instead of curving upwards in a circular form. Another Assam race (_B. bubalis fulvus_) is characterized by the tawny, in place of black, colour of its hair and hide. The haunts of the Indian buffalo are the grass-jungles near swamps, in which the grass exceeds 20 ft. in height. Here the buffaloes--like the Indian rhinoceros--form covered pathways, in which they are completely concealed. The herds frequently include fifty or more individuals. These animals are fond of passing the day in marshes, where they love to wallow in the mud; they are by no means shy, and do much harm to the crops. The rutting-season occurs in autumn, when several females follow a single male, forming for the time a small herd. The period of gestation lasts for ten months, and the female produces one or two calves at a birth. The bull is capable, it is said, of overthrowing an elephant, and generally more than a match even for the tiger, which usually declines the combat when not impelled by hunger. The Indian driver of a herd of tame buffaloes does not shrink from entering a tiger-frequented jungle, his cattle, with their massive horns, making short work of any tiger that may come in their way. Buffalo fights and fights between buffaloes and tigers were recognized Indian sports in the old days. Domesticated buffaloes differ from their wild brethren merely by their inferior size and smaller horns; some of the latter being of the circular and others of the straight type. The milk is good and nourishing, but of a ropy consistency and a peculiar flavour.

The tamarao, or Philippine buffalo, _Bos (Bubalus) mindorensis_, is a smaller animal, in many respects intermediate between the Indian buffalo and the dwarf anoa, or Celebes buffalo (_B. depressicornis_).

(R. L.*)

[1] In America, it is worth noting, the term "buffalo" is almost universally taken, at all events in popular parlance, to designate the American bison, for which see BISON.

BUFFET, LOUIS JOSEPH (1818-1898), French statesman, was born at Mirecourt. After the revolution of February 1848 he was elected deputy for the department of the Vosges, and in the Assembly sat on the right, pronouncing for the repression of the insurrection of June 1848 and for Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He was minister of agriculture from August to December 1849 and from August to October 1851. Re-elected deputy in 1863, he was one of the supporters of the "Liberal Empire" of Emile Ollivier, being finance minister in Ollivier's cabinet from January to the 10th of April 1870. He was president of the National Assembly from the 4th of April 1872 to the 10th of March 1875, and minister of the interior in 1875. Then, elected senator for life (1876), he pronounced himself in favour of the _coup d'état_ of the 16th of May 1877. Buffet had some oratorical talent, but shone most in opposition.

BUFFET, a piece of furniture which may be open or closed, or partly open and partly closed, for the reception of dishes, china, glass and plate. The word may also signify a long counter at which one stands to eat and drink, as at a restaurant, or--which would appear to be the original meaning--the room in which the counter stands. The word, like the thing it represents, is French. The buffet is the descendant of the credence, and the ancestor of the sideboard, and consequently has a close affinity to the dresser. Few articles of furniture, while preserving their original purpose, have varied more widely in form. In the beginning the buffet was a tiny apartment, or recess, little larger than a cupboard, separated from the room which it served either by a breast-high balustrade or by pillars. It developed into a definite piece of furniture, varying from simplicity to splendour, but always provided with one or more flat spaces, or broad shelves, for the reception of such necessaries of the dining-room as were not placed upon the table. The early buffets were sometimes carved with the utmost elaboration; the Renaissance did much to vary their form and refine their ornament. Often the lower part contained receptacles as in the characteristic English court-cupboard. The rage for collecting china in the middle of the 18th century was responsible for a new form--the high glazed back, fitted with shelves, for the display of fine pieces of crockery-ware. This, however, was hardly a true buffet, and was the very antithesis of the primary arrangement, in which the huge goblets and beakers and fantastic pieces of plate, of which so extremely few examples are left, were displayed upon the open "gradines." The tiers of shelves, with or without a glass front, which are still often found in Georgian houses, were sometimes called buffets--in short, any dining-room receptacle for articles that were not immediately wanted came at last to bear the name. In France the variations of type were even more numerous than in England, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a commode from a buffet. In the latter part of the 18th century the buffet occasionally took the form of a console table.

BUFFIER, CLAUDE (1661-1737), French philosopher, historian and educationalist, was born in Poland, on the 25th of May 1661, of French parents, who returned to France, and settled at Rouen, soon after his birth. He was educated at the Jesuit college there, and was received into the order at the age of nineteen. A dispute with the archbishop compelled him to leave Rouen, and after a short stay in Rome he returned to Paris to the college of the Jesuits, where he spent the rest of his life. He seems to have been an admirable teacher, with a great power of lucid exposition. His object in the _Traité des vérités premières_ (1717), his best-known work, is to discover the ultimate principle of knowledge. This he finds in the sense we have of our own existence and of what we feel within ourselves. He thus takes substantially the same ground as Descartes, but he rejected the _a priori_ method. In order to know what exists distinct from the self, "common sense" is necessary. Common sense he defined as "that disposition which nature has placed in all or most men, in order to enable them, when they have arrived at the age and use of reason, to form a common and uniform judgment with respect to objects different from the internal sentiment of their own perception, which judgment is not the consequence of any anterior judgment." The truths which this "disposition of nature" obliges us to accept can be neither proved nor disproved; they are practically followed even by those who reject them speculatively. But Buffier does not claim for these truths of "common sense" the absolute certainty which characterizes the knowledge we have of our own existence or the logical deductions we make from our thoughts; they possess merely the highest probability, and the man who rejects them is to be considered a fool, though he is not guilty of a contradiction. Buffier's aversion to scholastic refinements has given to his writings an appearance of shallowness and want of metaphysical insight, and unquestionably he failed entirely even to indicate the nature of that universality and necessity which he ascribed to his "eternal verities"; he was, however, one of the earliest to recognize the psychological as distinguished from the metaphysical side of Descartes's principle, and to use it, with no inconsiderable skill, as the basis of an analysis of the human mind, similar to that enjoined by Locke. In this he has anticipated the spirit and method as well as many of the results of Reid and the Scottish school. Voltaire described him as "the only Jesuit who has given a reasonable system of philosophy."

He wrote also _Éléments de métaphysique_ (1724), a "French Grammar on a new plan," and a number of historical essays. Most of his works appeared in a collected form in 1732, and an English translation of the _Traité_ was published in 1780.

BUFFON, GEORGE LOUIS LECLERC, COMTE DE (1707-1788), French naturalist, was born on the 7th of September 1707, at Montbard (Côte d'Or), his father, Benjamin François Leclerc de Buffon (1683-1775), being councillor of the Burgundian parlement. He studied law at the college of Jesuits at Dijon; but he soon exhibited a marked predilection for the study of the physical sciences, and more particularly for mathematics. Whilst at Dijon he made the acquaintance of a young Englishman, Lord Kingston, and with him travelled through Italy and then went to England. He published a French translation of Stephen Hales's _Vegetable Statics_ in 1735, and of Sir I. Newton's _Fluxions_ in 1740. At twenty-five years of age he succeeded to a considerable property, inherited from his mother, and from this time onward his life was devoted to regular scientific labour. At first he directed his attention more especially to mathematics, physics, [v.04 p.0703] and agriculture, and his chief original papers are connected with these subjects. In the spring of 1739 he was elected an associate of the Academy of Sciences; and at a later period of the same year he was appointed keeper of the Jardin du Roi and of the Royal Museum. This appears to have finally determined him to devote himself to the biological sciences in particular, and he began to collect materials for his _Natural History_. In the preparation of this voluminous work he associated with himself L.J.M. Daubenton, to whom the descriptive and anatomical portions of the treaties were entrusted, and the first three volumes made their appearance in the year 1749. In 1752 (not in 1743 or 1760, as sometimes stated) he married Marie Françoise de Saint-Belin. He seems to have been fondly attached to her, and felt deeply her death at Montbard in 1769. The remainder of Buffon's life as a private individual presents nothing of special interest. He belonged to a very long-lived race, his father having attained the age of ninety-three, and his grandfather eighty-seven. He himself died at Paris on the 15th of April 1788, at the age of eighty-one, of vesical calculus, having refused to allow any operation for his relief. He left one son, George Louis Marie Leclerc Buffon, who was an officer in the French army, and who died by the guillotine, at the age of thirty, on the 10th of July 1793 (22 Messidor, An II.), having espoused the party of the duke of Orleans.

Buffon was a member of the French Academy (his inaugural address being the celebrated _Discours sur le style_, 1753), perpetual treasurer of the Academy of Sciences, fellow of the Royal Society of London, and member of the Academies of Berlin, St Petersburg, Dijon, and of most of the learned societies then existing in Europe. Of handsome person and noble presence, endowed with many of the external gifts of nature, and rejoicing in the social advantages of high rank and large possessions, he is mainly known by his published scientific writings. Without being a profound original investigator, he possessed the art of expressing his ideas in a clear and generally attractive form. His chief defects as a scientific writer are that he was given to excessive and hasty generalization, so that his hypotheses, however seemingly brilliant, are often destitute of any sufficient basis in observed facts, whilst his literary style is not unfrequently theatrical and turgid, and a great want of method and order is commonly observable in his writings.

His great work is the _Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière_; and it can undoubtedly claim the merit of having been the first work to present the previously isolated and apparently disconnected facts of natural history in a popular and generally intelligible form. The sensation which was made by its appearance in successive parts was very great, and it certainly effected much good in its time by generally diffusing a taste for the study of nature. For a work so vast, however--aiming, as it did, at being little less than a general encyclopaedia of the sciences--Buffon's capacities may, without disparagement, be said to have been insufficient, as is shown by the great weakness of parts of the work (such as those relating to mineralogy). The _Histoire naturelle_ passed through several editions, and was translated into various languages. The edition most highly prized by collectors, on account of the beauty of its plates, is the first, which was published in Paris (1749-1804) in forty-four quarto volumes, the publication extending over more than fifty years. In the preparation of the first fifteen volumes of this edition (1749-1767) Buffon was assisted by Daubenton, and subsequently by P. Guéneau de Montbéliard, the abbé G.L.C.A. Bexon, and C.N.S. Sonnini de Manoncourt. The following seven volumes form a supplement to the preceding, and appeared in 1774-1789, the famous _Époques de la nature_ (1779) being the fifth of them. They were succeeded by nine volumes on the birds (1770-1783), and these again by five volumes on minerals (1783-1788). The remaining eight volumes, which complete this edition, appeared after Buffon's death, and comprise reptiles, fishes and cetaceans. They were executed by B.G.E. de Lacépède, and were published in successive volumes between 1788 and 1804. A second edition begun in 1774 and completed in 1804, in thirty-six volumes quarto, is in most respects similar to the first, except that the anatomical descriptions are suppressed and the supplement recast.

See Humbert-Bazile, _Buffon, sa famille, &c._ (1863); M.J.P. Flourens, _Hist. des travaux et des idées de Buffon_ (1844, 3rd ed., 1870); H. Nadault de Buffon, _Correspondance de Buffon_ (1860); A.S. Packard, _Lamarck_ (1901).