Troop of cargo carts pulled by oxen. Circa 1880

Albumen print -measures: 18.5 X 24.7 cm x  / 7.28 x 9.72 in.- mounted on a secondary support from the period, without identification of authorship. Good exemplar. 

Magnificent plein air capture of a troop of two-wheeled cargo wagons, close to crossing a road junction, giving a variation to the usual flat plane of the pampas. Behind these monumental transports, the buildings of a rural town appear.

The four carts (perhaps there are more, but the framing of the image took these four), covered, are pulled by three yoke of oxen each. Only in the third cart we observed two people standing. These troops were led by carters and picadors, and even a foreman on horseback, surely in the image witnessed by the saddled freight that is next to the first cart.

In full expansion of the agricultural frontier, these large cars crossed the Argentine territory moving the most varied loads, including the freshly harvested cereal. They circulated the length and breadth of the country, transferring the "fruits of the earth" from their production centers, demonstrating the strength of commerce at the time. Over time the oxen were replaced by draft horses, faster than those.

BOM