496 -1. w. BEWS. 



requires more explanation. When water, as is usually the 

 case, was only obtainable at some particular place or places, 

 cattle tracks were formed to those spots. These, in course of 

 time, became water channels, and very quickly formed 

 ravines or dongas. Farmers are now more careful not to 

 allow the cattle to form such tracks. 



Sheep and goats, where allowed to graze indiscriminately, 

 nibble young trees,. and thus affect the bush also. 



But it is throuofh the asfency of fire that man's indirect 

 influence has been greatest. The veld is being changed and 

 the bush is being destroyed. A considerable amount of 

 attention has been given by the writer to tracing out the 

 various stages of retrogression in the bush — a question of 

 great economic importance. 



Fires rarely originate inside the bush, except by deliberate 

 intention. The natives formerly burned down much of the 

 bush to form mealie patches. For a year or two such patches, 

 enriched by the ashes, would yield good crops, but the soil is 

 not a rich one naturally, and so very soon the process had to 

 be repeated. This is a very primitive (probably the most 

 primitive) method of agriculture. It explains why the native 

 kraals and mealie patches cluster round the large forests. 

 This procedure has continued until many of the large forests 

 in South Africa have entirely disappeared. Were it not for 

 the fact that the present native races have not occupied 

 Natal for vei*y long, and the more primitive races were not 

 agricultural, nor very numerous, the destruction would have 

 been still greater than it has been. 



The bush was often set fire to by the natives, and also by 

 the early white settlers, in order to drive out game. 



A native method of felling trees is to light a fire round 

 the base and allow it to smoulder until the tree comes down. 

 Such fires might sometimes spread and destroy portions of 

 the bush. 



However, all this has probably not led to such extensive 

 destruction of the bush as the grass fires outside the bush. 

 When the grass is very dry, as it always is at the end of the 



