A greater number of these planters are settled in the Middle Veldt. They are engaged in mixed farming, wheat growing, and other pursuits. Stock keeping is the principal occupation, however.
Various metals are known to exist. Four years after the republic was established, extensive and rich gold fields were discovered in the district of Leydenburg, and a little later in the highland that forms the watershed between the Vaal and the Limpopo rivers. Long before this, gold mines had been worked in different parts of the country; but the amount of metal procured was not of sufficient quantity to attract attention.
People soon began to migrate from all parts of South Africa and from Europe in search of the hidden treasure. A settlement named Barbertown was built in the center of the eastern mining district, and for some months was one of the busiest places in the country. Not long after, most of the inhabitants removed to the more important fields of the Witwatersrand. Here the city of Johannesburg arose, as if by magic, and streets lined with handsome, substantial buildings, with all modern appliances, added character and beauty to the town.
The South African Republic possesses an abundance of a good quality of iron. In fact, the supply of iron ore is almost limitless. Silver, copper, lead, and several other minerals are also found to quite an extent.
A railway will shortly be completed from Pretoria to Delagoa Bay, with a branch line to Barbertown. The railroad to Delagoa Bay will open the republic to many favorable conditions and opportunities. Even at the present time good carriage roads cannot be said to exist. Those dignified by the name of roads are mere wagon tracks.
A line of railroad from Pretoria to Vereeniging on the Vaal River, passing through Johannesburg, is now open. At Vereeniging it is connected with the Great Trunk line through the Orange Free State, which branches off to the three chief ports of Cape Colony. From Krugersdorp there is a railway through Johannesburg to the Springs. This passes over a great coal mine, which supplies fuel to the city itself and to the quartz-crushing machinery along a route of fifty-four miles. With railroads at its command, the South African Republic must needs have a brilliant future.
It is rather a curious fact in the history of the country, that as soon as the unbeaten tracks were opened to civilization and cultivation they became freed from malarial fevers. This was particularly noticeable along the borders of the forests and the streams in the lowlands. In course of time vast tracts north of the Vaal became the property of the emigrant farmers, who had been attracted by the facilities for grazing and stock-raising.
As the large game, becoming alarmed, fled from the presence of man, who had invaded their haunts, the dreaded tsetse fly, which had been so numerous as to threaten the extinction of the herds of cattle, also disappeared, much to the delight and satisfaction of the farmers. Hence the republic holds many attractions for the would-be settler, now that its chief plagues no longer have an existence.