Cárcano initiated plans for a new central post office for the rapidly growing city of Buenos Aires, and in 1888, the President signed a congressional bill for its construction.

There, he introduced Polled Durham cattle, a vaccine against anthrax that had been prepared at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and an imported steam plough (becoming the first landowner in Argentina to use these innovations).

Named President of the Agricultural Education Advisory Commission in 1907, he joined the Higher Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, becoming the school's first dean upon its 1909 incorporation into the University of Buenos Aires.

Among his best-known works outside the subject of history was Evolución histórica del régimen de la tierra pública, a study on eminent domain.

Cárcano returned as Dean of the University of Buenos Aires School of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine from 1921 to 1924, and twice served as President of the National Academy of History.