as well as the western divisions. In this respect it differs from the wine industry. Still, as a wheat-growing country, neither the Cape Colony nor the adjoining countries can ever hope to compete with the Australasian and North American Colonies, unless, indeed, large areas are irrigated. Cape wheat is considered extremely hard and good, and there is no difficulty in harvesting it; but the average yield per acre is trifling compared with the Canadian wheat-fields, which along the Red River and Assiniboine valleys sometimes yield fifty to sixty bushels per acre. In the Cape Colony fifteen bushels are considered good, and sometimes the farmer is satisfied with ten or even five bushels per acre. Before the British occupation the ways of the Dutch Boer were very primitive. A great unwieldy plough, with only one handle, was forced through the land by the united strength of eight or ten oxen, and in the place of a harrow, a large bush was used'. Even now primitive threshing-floors can be seen where the corn was trampled out by oxen and horses. Lord Macartney, the British Governor (1799), brought out from England an experienced agriculturist, Mr. Duckett, and caused a set of the very best English farm utensils to be used, and a model farm to be established. To a great extent this enlightened policy was thrown away upon the Boers, upon whom the curse of slavery had settled. In the words of Mr. Theal: "The farmer, too proud and too indolent to labour himself, entrusted the whole work of his farm to his slaves and Hottentots; and they having no interest in that which could not benefit them, performed everything in a careless makeshift manner 2.' The Agricultural Society which existed in Lord Macartney's time, did little or nothing to help the farmer. Things are very different now, and South African farmers buy freely 2 Ibid. p. 162.

1 Theal's 'Compendium,' p. 161.

the best ploughs and reaping machines of British and American make, but the Colony has still largely to import corn and flour and consumes a very dear loaf.

In 1888, 8,238,000 lbs. of wheat and 2,441,000 lbs. of flour were imported, chiefly from South Australia. The selling price of wheat (1888) in the Cape, Stellenbosch, Alexandria, Piquetberg, Worcester, was six shillings a bushel, in Caledon six shillings and sixpence, in Calvinia eight shillings. In 1890 the prices were considerably higher all round 1. As a rule wheat is cheaper and more plentiful in the East and North-east Provinces.

(8) To the Cape colonist the ox has been invaluable as a beast of burthen. What a canoe or sleigh has been to a North American colonist, an ox-waggon has been to a South African voertrekker or pioneer. Before the days of railways the oxen did almost all the transport, and the town of Kimberley was for many years supplied with food, furniture, machinery, and material of all kinds drawn across river and mountain by labouring spans or yokes of oxen. The best cattle-rearing districts are in the north-east portion, where horses also thrive best. Cattle in this country are subject to a very fatal disease known as the lung sickness, and care has often to be taken in travelling from one part of the Colony to the other, that oxen accustomed to what is called the sweet veldt, are not taken through the sour veldt country. The change of veldt often causes a great mortality.

(9) In former times the Cape furnished a large number of cavalry remounts to the Indian Government; the breed of Cape horses being remarkable for their hardihood and endurance. Their peculiar character has been preserved by the importation of Arab sires from the north through Zanzibar. Lord Charles Somerset (1814

1 Appendix XI. Imports of Cereals.

1822), when Governor of the Cape Colony, encouraged the breed of horses, and set apart large districts in the Hantam and Cedarberg mountains for horse-breeding. It is a well-known fact that the Cape horses are subject to a most peculiar and virulent disease which attacks and carries them off in a very short space of time, but the best places for them are not the low-lying plains or valleys, but the high grassy plateaux and the summits of the mountains. A horse that has passed through the sickness is called a 'salted' horse, and is considered very valuable. The best districts for horses lie in the north-east portion of the Cape Colony, in Albert, Colesberg, Cradock, Queenstown, Herschel, Wodehouse, Middelberg, and Hopetown. The Basuto pony, which is bred in the highlands of Basutoland, is a native kind of great excellence, and is admirably suited for Polo purposes, being sturdy, tractable, and good-tempered. There is great use, also, made of mules in the Cape Colony and South Africa generally, the chief pride and boast of a wealthy South African farmer being a well-appointed team of these animals.

(10) It may be safely asserted that wool, the staple industry of nearly all our Colonies, has been the surest and most profitable source of wealth both to the Colonial farmer and to the British manufacturer at home. It has been calculated that the total value of Colonial wool imported into England from 1831 to 1886 has reached the enormous sum of £421,000,000. This exceeds considerably the output of the gold mines, which appeal to the imagination more strongly than wool; but, as a Colonial product, precedence must be given to the 'golden fleece.' The first Merino sheep was introduced into the Cape in 1790 by a Colonel Gordon, who was in the Dutch service. He procured a number of rams of the fine-woolled sheep of the Escurial breed, which had been presented to the

Dutch Government by the King of Spain. When Colonel Gordon died, some of these sheep, which were not appreciated by the Dutch and French farmers', were shipped on board the English warships the 'Reliance and the 'Supply' to Sydney. The Dutch and French farmers preferred the hairy fat-tailed sheep, and even to this day 'there is not a woman amongst the Dutch farming population who understands converting wool into stockings or jackets.' This is remarkable, as the Huguenot refugees were generally considered to be the best handicraftsmen in Europe. So completely, however, had the sojourn in the South African wilderness deadened their knowledge and enslaved their natures. For generations, also, they had left everything to their slaves.

In 1812, shortly after the British occupation, two gentlemen named Reitz and van Breda introduced some sheep of the genuine electoral breed from Saxony, and, later on, Lord Charles Somerset procured some good Spanish Merinos and kept them at a Government farm near Capetown. Subsequently, in 1820, the English Albany settlers imported more of the Spanish breed, and the industry grew at once. The multiplication of flocks was followed by some unforeseen drawbacks. In course of time the noxious plant, called the Xanthium spinosum, with its seeds furnished with barbs and hooks, and clinging tenaciously to the fleece, was introduced by the Merino sheep. By means of legislation, however, this plant has been promptly dealt with and exterminated. Another parasite called the carrot seed, with numerous hooks, and also the burr weed, were soon found to exist. But the greatest evils probably followed upon the overstocking of the veldt, and the trampling out of the herbage by the constant wanderings of the sheep backwards and forwards between the kraals. In some districts Argus Annual,' 1890, p. 377.

16

the sheep are shorn every six months, in others every seven or eight months, the dip of unwashed wool being six to eight pounds in weight.

The district par excellence for sheep runs is Beaufort West, situated along the Great Karroo, and where the sweet karroo bush is the favourite pasturage. It has 602,500 sheep, and Queenstown follows next with 576,000. Wodehouse, Fraserburg, Barkly East, Victoria West, Albert, and, generally speaking, the Midland and North-east Provinces, are best adapted for sheep. The total number of woolled sheep in 1888 (as distinguished from the hairy and fat-tailed sheep) was 11,162,000. This is a large number, but it falls very short of the Australian and New Zealand flocks. The value of Cape wool in 1890 was about £2,194,772, that of the Pacific Colonies more than tenfold this amount'.

(11) The Angora goat is a most profitable source of wealth to the Cape colonist. Imported originally from Turkey, the goats seem to thrive in the pastures more especially of the Eastern and North-eastern Provinces, notably in the districts of Somerset East, Graaf Reinet, and Bedford. The first Angora goats were sent out to the Cape in 1854 at the instance of Mr. Titus Salt, but the real and practical introduction of the industry is said to be due to Mr. Mosenthal. The Asia Minor breed has been carefully crossed with the native with good results. The staple from the Cape ranks high as a valuable article of commerce. In 1868 the value of the export was £4,030; in 1890 there were flocks yielding 9,442,213 lbs., of the value of £337,239. The Cape supplies one-third of the total consumption in Great Britain, the remainder coming from Turkey 2.

1 Appendix XII. Cape Wool.

2 See Paper by the Hon. J. X. Merriman, vol. xvi,' Proceedings of Royal Colonial Institute.'