Vol. XIII. No. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



.373 



^i-lect the corn tVoiii shong and healthy .stalks: not 

 f 1(^11 near barren and weak stalks. 



Sfleft the corn which has shank only sufficiently \o\\^ to 

 [permit the ear to hang down. Long shanks and gfiod ears 

 do not go together. 



Select the corn that has ears completely covered with 

 shuck. The shack should present a square appearance at the 

 end, which u.sually means a well-shaped ear. 



E\ery farmer who realizes that liis corn yields are not 

 what they should be must make plans to do this work at 

 once, if he aims to improve liis 191-5 corn crop. Corn 

 im|)rc>^•eme^t, even though achieved only to a small extent 

 at the start, is a long step in the right direction, for it incul- 

 cates the habit of striving for bigger and bigger yield^. Corn 

 means too much to the farmer of the South, especially now 

 tliat cotton is not to lie relied on as it ha.s been in the past, foi- 

 any to feel otherwise than that it deserves to command most 

 careful and painstaking attention. 



LAND SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



()ne of the principal re.snlts of the Koyal Coiiiiiiis- 

 aiitu ot 1897 was the establishment, in .some of the 

 Wef<t Indian islands, of a Government scheme of land 

 settlement. In connexion with this it is of interest to 

 note that a Comniission was appointed in July 1012, 

 by the Oovernor-Oeneral of the Cnion of South Africa, 

 to ini|uire into the provision of small holdings for 

 miners and industrial workers on the Rand. The 

 RejKirt of the Conmiission, dated Octobrr 1. I!ll.">, 

 deals with the following matters: — 



(1) The nece.ssity for providing land in that 

 district for establishing small holdings, anfl lor the 

 settlement thereon of jX'rsons engaged in mining or 

 industrial occupations: 



(2) The extent of land available for effecti\e 

 occupation; 



(•i) Legislation, if any, reciuired for carrying out 

 iriy sciieme proposed. 



The following statement of the Conmiission with 

 regard to the hr.><c niatter .seems ot general interest, 

 where similar problems are presented: — 



The Commission in pre.senting the results of their 

 enquiry find it necesiary to (h-aw a distinction between two 

 kinds of settlement on small holdings. 



(1) The settlement on smallholdings of perscMis wlio 

 will continue to be engaged on the mines or in industiy: 



(2) The settlement on small holdings of persons who 

 iiave retired from employment on the mines or in industry, 

 who wish to devote tiiemselves to farming and make their 

 living out of it. 



Holdings of the first type are referred to in the Report 

 1- -Caidi-n Holdings", and those of the second type as 'Farm 

 Holdings', both tyjies being included under the teini 'Small 

 Holdings'. The im|)ortant distinction is, that while the 

 Kariu Holding is one on which a man can make a living 

 by agriculture, the Garden Holding is not. The latter is 

 intended to provide the industrial worker with a home, and 

 with a plot of ground on which he can occupy his time and 

 resources in poultry keeping or some other rural employ- 

 ment. The Conunission recommend that a (farden Holding 

 .should be not less than 1 acre and not more than 5 acres 

 in extent, and a Farm Holding not les.s than 25 or more than 

 .')00 acres. A holding of 500 acres would be, relatively, 

 a small lioldins in South Africa. The three mining districts 



of the Rand are divided into 208 farms Avith an average 

 acreage per farm of 2,096 morgen, equal to 5,729 acres, 

 a morgen being 2^ acres. 



Garden Holdings would have the more direct effect on 

 social conditions on the Rand, but the Commission anticipate 

 that the creation of Farm Holdings would have an important 

 though less immediate ett'ect on such conditions. 



The Commission are of opinion that the settlement of 

 the wi.rkers on small holdings would result in the ini]H-ove- 

 nieiit of conditions in the following respects: — 



(a) By improving housing conditions; 



(b) By making the population more settled: 



(c) By encouraging habits of saving : 



(d) Bj- providing an opportunity for men who, for one 

 reason or another, wish to retire from industrial occupations 

 aufl take up a country life ; 



(e) By providing new openings for the rising generation; 



(f) By creating a link lietween the Rand community 

 and the rural population of the surrounding districts; 



(g) By reducing the cost of living. 



Points (a) and (b) advanced in the above, seem of 

 especial force. 



With regard to legislation, several islands in the 

 Wl>i Iiidies have passed Acts in accordance with the 

 findings of the Royal Commission to facilitate land 

 settlement, and such Acts have apparently worked well 

 where there has been need of them. In the Rand, the 

 legislation recommended b}" the Commission is the 

 introduction of a syst(;m of progressive taxation of 

 land \ahtes. 



Palm Kernels.- In the HulUtin <>t ike Imperial 

 IiiH'tii.t'', Vol. XII, No. 3, July-September 1914, there 

 is an interesting article on the trade in palm kernels, of 

 which the following is an abstract: — 



The two chief products of the West African oil palm 

 (Eliiit ijniiieensif) are palm oil and palm kernels. The former 

 is obtained from the pericarp, or outer pulpy layer of the 

 date-like fruit, the latter are secured by shelling the nuts 

 when the pericarp is removed. 



I'ntil recently the trade in palm kernels has been left 

 entirely to Germany, as is shown by the fact that of the total 

 export of the.se from the British West African possessions in 

 1912, valued at £.'^,802,492, the amount shipped to Germany 

 was valued at £3,606,943. The article draws the attention 

 of British merchants and manufacturers to the advisability of 

 securing a proportion of this trade. 



Palm kernels are used in Germany as a source of oil and 

 feeding cake. The oil ol)tained from them is of a white or 

 pale yellow colour, and possesses a pleasant taste. It is used 

 for the same purposes as coco-nut oil, viz: the manufacture 

 of soap and candles, and the preparation of various edible 

 fats. These products are manufactured on a large scale in 

 Germany, and exported largely to Great Britain. The meal 

 which is left after the extraction of the oil from the kernels 

 is of value as a cattle food, the whole of which is practically 

 consumed in Germany itself. 



Should British oil-seed crushers undertake to secure this 

 product and to work it, they would probably find no difficulty 

 in disposing of the oil lo .soap makers and makers of edible 

 oil jjroducts, but the English farmer might not be induced so 

 readily to take up the feeding-cake, though of proved value 

 on the continent. Yet there is room for an extension of the 

 production of feeding-cakes in the United Kingdom, the 

 imports of such cakes from abroad in 1913 having been 

 valued at £2,539,892. 



