BASUTOLAND
Basutoland has a better rainfall than any part of South Africa, except Natal and the south-western corner of Cape Colony. The maximum fall per annum, save in years of drought, may be put at thirty-five inches, the minimum at twenty-eight. It is nearly always sufficient to allow of wheat being sown between July and August, and reaped in December without irrigation. About one-third of cultivated land is devoted to wheat, a third to Indian corn, and a third to millets. These last are sown between the middle of September and the middle of November, and are reaped in April. No rotations of cereals with leguminous crops are practised; no manure is used. Cultivation has been going on for thirty years, and the soil is by no means as productive as it was originally.
According to the authority of Mr. Willcocks, if suitable manures were employed and careful cultivation gone in for, this country with its friable soil should be eminently suitable for all root crops, such as potatoes, onions, and turnips, while beetroot would answer admirably in the valley of the Caledon River up-stream to Ladybrand, and in the main tributaries of the Caledon. The denudation of the country—owing to the numerous ravines which cut it up—is serious, and, if allowed to continue, it will mean incalculable loss. The scouring action of the water is aggravated by the fact that the Basuto villages are built on the tops of the hills. The steeps are constantly worn into tracks by the women-carriers of water from the springs, and these tracks become during the rain a series of rivulets which contribute further to the general denudation. To save the land from the fate of Palestine, which, in somewhat the same way, became denuded by hundreds of years of cultivation and intense habitation, an ingenious arrangement for planting willow and poplar cuttings in damp ravines, and wattles and aloes in the dry ones, has been described by Mr. Willcocks—a remedy which at the outset seems costly, but will finally become self-supporting. The young trees will be pollarded and produce fuel, which is badly needed in this at present extraordinarily treeless region; and it is even possible that if the ravines were filled with trees it might result in an increased rainfall during the critical months of August, September, and October.
Nothing in the way of irrigation can here be done without reservoirs, and these would pay nowhere but near the important centres. But more important than irrigation, and much less costly, would be a better system of cultivation, the introduction of leguminous crops and roots in rotation with cereals. Experimental ventures by means of model farms would soon prove what were the most suitable legumins and roots for the country, and the best manures. Once initiated, the intelligent Basutos would rapidly improve upon their limited experiences; but whether they would acquire a taste for a diet of pulses, on the cultivation of which the future development of the country depends, is another matter.
Patriotically, it seems reasonable to demand the education of the appetite of a people in accordance with the output of their native land. The young of a nation should be taught to acquire a taste for healthy home-grown fare, and the women-folk should be instructed in the art of manipulating it to the profit of the household. What is applicable in Basutoland is applicable all over South Africa. The urban population must assist agriculture or it cannot be made to pay. The produce of the farms must find a market at its elbow, so to say; for there can be no profits if enormous charges for rail have to be met and the farmers are thrust into competition with the American and European markets.
A SUGAR-MILL IN NATAL (CENTRIFUGAL ROOM)
Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen