NATIVE AGRICULTURE. 



By Rev. John Robert Lewis Kingon, M.A., F.L.S. 



The Transkeian Territories, occupying the Eastern portion 

 of the Cape Province, cover an area of i8,i8i square miles, and 

 support a total population of 908.706 persons. We have, there- 

 fore, 49.98 persons per square mile, of which only 1.08 are 

 European — or. to put it another way. 12.80 acres of land are 

 available per head of population. 



In making a study of Native agriculture, one is impressed 

 not only with the magnitude of the possibilities, but also with 

 the extent of the actualities. We are too accustomed to think 

 of the Natives as unjjrogressive and lazy, and do not realise 

 how much in the aggregate is produced by them in spite of 

 their wasteful and comparatively crude methods, nor, for that 

 matter, how considerably would the production rise if better 

 methods were introduced. In any case, so vast a source of 

 employment (especially in conditions so uniquely favourable) 

 should be carefully fostered and developed in the Ijest interests 

 of the State no less than in the interests of the Natives them- 

 selves ; and, moreover, if better methods of agriculture were 

 employed, fewer labourers would l)e retjuired to do the work, 

 and so, more would be set free to engage in other lields of 

 production, while the land would become capable of support- 

 ing a larger population than at present is the case. 



Before, however, we deal with Native agriculture in its 

 varying aspects, let us see how much land is available, without 

 which there could be no agriculture. This is hardly the 

 occasion to enter into a discussion on land in its relation to the 

 Natives — whether it is to be dealt with so as to secure greatest 

 productiveness, or whether there is a higher and greater use 

 involving the comfort and ])eace of those individuals who live 

 upon it. In these days, when utility is regarded so highly, it 

 may perhaps be pertinent at least to enquire whether, under 

 certain given circumstances, productiveness should not be 

 sacrificed, so that the ease and enjoyments of the occupants 

 may remain undisturbed. With these questions, however, we 

 are not now concerned, for our field of enquiry is confined to 

 the amount of land available for agricultural purposes, and the 

 use to which it is being put. 



The total extent of the Transkeian Territories (including 

 Pondoland) amounts, roughly, to 5^ million morgen (about 11 

 million acres). The land lying fallow, together with the 

 pastoral and agricultural land, amounts to some j^, 096, 6^:9 

 morgen (about 6^ million acres), the greater part of the 

 remainder being made up of mountain areas impossible of use 

 in these ways. 



In the surveyed districts this land is held on individual 

 title, but most is still held under commvmal tenure, as will be 

 seen bv consultino- Table A. 



