South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 8 (of 8) / South Africa and Its Future

by Unknown

THE TRANSVAAL

The Transvaal, for agricultural purposes, may be divided into the dolomite region,[12] the high, low, and bush veldt, and the south-eastern tracts. The most important is the dolomite region, which, roughly speaking, covers the country within lines joining Vereeniging, Heidelberg, Bethel, Pretoria, Rustenburg, Zeerust, Lichtenburg, Klerksdorp, and the Vaal River from Klerksdorp to Vereeniging—an area of about 15,000 square miles. Johannesburg’s rainfall—from twenty-eight inches per annum in the east to twenty-two inches in the west—is the best in the district. Though uncertain in September, October, and November, in January, February, and March rain can always be counted on. The country generally is capable of great agricultural development, an area of some 350,000 acres being capable of perennial irrigation, in addition to the areas irrigated by the existing springs. In addition to the agricultural value of perennially irrigated land, there is the land which without the aid of irrigation can be so cultivated as to give excellent yields, for it is proved that well-manured and tilled crops need only half the rainfall that ill-manured and untilled crops require.

Angora Goat (Young Ewe)

In the high veldt the rainfall, taken at twenty-one inches, occurs in January, February, and March. The veldt grass will support one sheep per acre. Mr. Willcocks thinks that in this region—it is enclosed by lines drawn from Vereeniging to Heidelberg, Pretoria, Belfast, Amsterdam, Vryheid, Volksrust, Standerton, and the line of the Vaal River—it would be more profitable to thoroughly develop the unirrigated crops than to go in for perennial irrigation. The higher the altitude in South Africa the less the value of perennial water, except under special conditions. Perennial irrigation should first be confined to centres such as Middelburg, Standerton, and other towns which, with this aid, would give handsome profits.

The annual trek from the high to the low veldt in winter might be dispensed with if sufficient winter food crops were grown with the aid of the rainfall, and the stock herded in winter in cattle and sheep folds sheltered by groves of blue gum or pine trees. The practice of trekking from high to low veldt in winter, is due to the fact that winter frosts kill the grass in the high veldt, and the farmers, in default of other food-stuffs for flocks, are forced to travel to the regions where frost is unknown. Naturally, the trekking results in 10,000 acres of veldt having to do the work of 5000. To double the value of their holdings in the high veldt, and save the trouble of the trek, the farmers need only to plant a few belts of sheltering trees, and cultivate roots and feeding stuff for flocks and herds.

The low veldt, being well supplied with water, could finally become a possession of great value. The climate being unsuited to Europeans, the place has remained undeveloped; but the land, if set apart, might be made self-supporting, indeed a source of appreciable revenue to the country, if British Indians and Kafirs were encouraged to produce rice, tropical plants, &c., which would in no way compete with the temperate and sub-tropical crops of the European farmers in the other regions. “If,” says Mr. Willcocks, “Indians and Kafirs were confined to the tropical belts, and the Europeans to the temperate belts, we should not see the absurd spectacle which we see to-day of the best parts of the temperate zones being inhabited almost exclusively by Kafirs, while the Europeans with great jealousy are keeping the Indians and Kafirs out of the tropical belts.”

No wholesale improvements in arid or semi-arid regions can be carried forward without land and water taxes, for individuals that are exempt might neglect to improve the land with impunity, and the State would be powerless to interfere to prevent whole regions lying waste and barren.

There is said to be scarcely a part of South Africa where agriculturists cannot afford to pay £1 per acre per annum for perennially irrigated land, and the system of irrigation as put before the Government shows that this uniform rate would enable extensive projects to be undertaken everywhere with profit.

Land tax is another question to be considered. Land in Orange River Colony may be considered as having a mean value of 15s. per acre. The suggested tax is 6d. per acre per annum. The effect of such tax would be to weed the country of useless landowners, and replace them by industrious and progressive farming men. On a basis of 6d. per acre per annum, the Orange River Colony could pay £300,000 per annum.

In the Transvaal the dolomite region, the high veldt, and the south-eastern corner—taken as worth 10s. an acre, and taxed at 4d. per acre—would bring in annually some £350,000. As in the Orange Colony, irrigation works would add materially to the revenue. There would at first be protests from all quarters, but eventually this systematic taxation would prevent worthless landlords from accumulating property to the detriment of progressive practical men.

In order to protect and improve the position of the farmers, Mr. Willcocks recommends the formation of a Bureau of Agriculture after the pattern of the Agricultural Bureau at Washington. Its representatives collect information from far and near, and of every possible kind, sending to headquarters all manner of agricultural produce. Experimental farms are started in the various states, curious seeds are sown, and if any variety proves adaptable to any particular region, the farmers are promptly provided with seed corn, and thus assisted to keep at the head of the world in agricultural production. Such a bureau in South Africa would cause its agents to import legumins from Egypt, and labour-saving machines from America, which last would halve the expenditure on watercourses and earthwork of all classes.

Taken all round, South Africa with the addition of 3,000,000 acres of perennially irrigated land (gained at an expenditure of £30,000,000, and valued at £100,000,000), and also with 10,000,000 acres of land under crops depending on rainfall (which might be valued at another £100,000,000), would be a very different country from that which it is to-day. In view of this immensely rich outlook, no South African statesman should rest content with the transitory mineral wealth of the moment, or the golden glories of a possible fifty years. Irrigation, and irrigation alone, can secure permanent wealth to any part of the South African continent, and the Government that refuses to recognise the vital importance of a sufficiently comprehensive land and irrigation scheme, and that hesitates while the land is ripe for regeneration—that Government will deservedly go down to posterity as the Government of lost opportunities.

PEELING BARK ON A WATTLE PLANTATION IN NATAL
After Photo by G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen.