SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: AN ANALYSIS. 



By P. J. DiT ToiT. 



In considering the agricultural condition of a country one 

 has naturally to take account, among other factors, of the people 

 first of all. A correct appreciation of the characteristics of an 

 old, a settled people, of one nationality, is, perhaps, not difficult 

 to acquire ; indeed, it would be intuitive. But, in circumstances 

 such as ours, we are concerned not only with the characteristics 

 of men of mainly three European nationalities — Dutch, French, 

 and English (in the order of their advent) — or the descendants 

 of those men, but also with the effect each of these has had 

 upon the other, with other changes produced by environment, 

 with the effect brought about by contact with native races, and 

 with the results that followed on great political changes. So 

 we have a complex problem in the main factor which I have 

 referred to. First came settlers from Holland, who gradually 

 spread out over the 'districts in the neighbourhood of Table Bay, 

 built comfortable homesteads, ]:)lanted trees, beautified the land 

 they occupied, and provided from the soil what was necessary 

 for their own existence and comfort, for the requirements of the 

 East India Company, and for the ships that called at the Bay. 

 In the earlier part of this ])eriod, which extended over one 

 hundred and fifty years, came the Huguenots, who brought with 

 them a good knowledge of grain-growing, viticulture and horti- 

 culture, settled among the Dutch Colonists, intermarried with 

 tliem in course of time, and blended, or rather r.:lxed, in various 

 degrees, attributes of men who had sprung from two different 

 races. Lastly, we have the advent of the English, extending 

 over more than a hundred years, both as agriculturists and in 

 other vocations, but chiefly the latter. The last-mentioned 

 section of the European community has not. so far, intermarried 

 with the two earlier sections to a great extent, or vice versa ; so, 

 for our purpose, we may accept the usual division of the Euro- 

 ])ean population into two sections. So far as agriculttn^e is con- 

 cerned, one appears to be distinguished, as a whole, by caution, 

 love of freedom, endurance and tenacity ; and the other by 

 enterprise, activity and self-reliance. It seems a matter for 

 congratulation that we have these varying qualities constantly 

 acting and reacting upon one another, though doubtless, if they 

 were fused, the advantage to the country would be the greater. 

 On the whole, we have a farming community whom adversity 

 or discomfort does not daunt, and is firmly attached to the soil ; 

 and in this we probably have the reason for the peopling of 

 the most arid parts of the country — I refer to the far Western dis- 

 tricts — and the rearing of flocks and herds there under conditions 

 of isolation, uncertainty, and disappointment that would drive 

 a less tenacious people into the towns. 



Here was a vast country in the hands of, at first, a few 

 white inhabitants, men who had sprung from a sea- faring, 

 courageous, freedom-loving people — a people who extended 



