In 1838 the quantity of wool exported was 490,754 lbs., valued at £26,627. In 1891 the highest figures were reached, the record being 75,520,701 lbs., of the value of £2,264,498: this in 1901 had fallen to 65,209,699 lbs., valued at £1,489,246.
Mohair, the name given to the fleece of the Angora goat, is peculiarly liable to variations in price, according to the fashions which may be in vogue. On a well-bred animal the fleece should hang in long wavy locks or ringlets of white, silky, lustrous hair; and when full grown, should touch the ground. The fleeces vary in weight according to the breed of the animal, and to the class to which it belongs—oily or non-oily. From a well-bred flock of Angora ewes the mohair should average about four pounds weight per animal. In the case of rams and kapaters, or wethers, there is a considerable increase, as much as from eight to fourteen pounds being sometimes clipped. A dry climate is essential to the growth of good mohair, and therefore the karroo and mixed grass and karroo country are admirably adapted for its production. Almost all the Angoras in the Colony are the progeny of rams imported from Asia Minor, crossed with the white Boer goat; and it is probably owing to this fact that in many flocks a considerable amount of kemp, or coarse white hair, is still to be found. Even in the most favourable circumstances Cape mohair realises less than the Turkish produce by from twopence to threepence per pound; this probably being on account of the lack of brightness and spinning properties possessed by the former article.
At the present time the Cape produces about one-half of the world’s supply of mohair. In 1857 the quantity exported was 870 lbs., which realised £10. These figures in 1897 had increased to 12,583,601 lbs., valued at £676,644; and in 1901 had fallen to 10,813,239 lbs., of the value of £502,605. The decrease in the exports of wool and mohair for the year 1901 is no doubt due to the effects of the war and the disturbed state of the country.
At present, however, the outlook is more hopeful, and there is no doubt whatever that for the progressive and enterprising farmer the future is one of great possibilities.
SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS
By W. BLELOCH
Author of “The New South Africa”
South Africa is a country of magnificent distances, with the centres of industry situated at points far apart in the wide interior; the country villages are dotted about with thirty to fifty miles of brown karroo or verdant veldt in between; even the homesteads of the Boers are planted at respectful distances from each other. In such a country a comprehensive, efficient, and cheap railway system is absolutely necessary; without railways the development of trade and industry could not be pushed forward on any large scale. The great staple products of the Cape—wool, skins, and hides—could not compete with the like products of Australia and the Argentine. The diamond mines of Kimberley, which support an industrial population of about 50,000, and the great gold mines of the Rand, which at the present stage of development supply the wherewithal to live to 200,000 people, white and black, would be able to work only on a restricted basis; the greater number of the Rand mines would have to shut down, and without railways it may be said that the stimulating production of wealth in the nearly indestructible form of gold and diamonds would practically cease.
To meet the requirements which the circumstances demand, a far-stretching network of railways—with wide meshes it is true—is growing over the country. Instead of the old system of ox transport and coaches drawn by mules, which ten years ago were the only means of approach to the Transvaal and Rhodesia, there are now modern freight trains, drawn by heavy-type locomotives, hauling up the vast import traffic to the Rand, and running down return loads of wool and hides from the grassy uplands of the Orange River Colony, and the barren-looking, but wide and productive, karroo plains of the Cape. There are trains de luxe with corridors and platforms to enable the passenger to stretch his limbs en route, or sit in comfort and view the scenery as the train plods on its twenty-five or thirty miles an hour.