soirii AFRICAN a(;.kicultijK1': : an analysis. 147 



attention until contentment and a common feeling of unity had 

 been ])roduced, and that agriculture should be thrown into the 

 crucible. 



Now, let us consider for a moment the eiitect which the 

 contact of the European population with the native races has 

 had on the farmer. On the European was laid the task, for 

 his own protection, as well as on higher grounds, of civilising 

 the barbarian. The latter gained, but it was inevitable that the 

 former should lose. In the sphere of labour the native exerted 

 a marked influence on his European master, to the latter's detri- 

 ment. The native, in the course of time, became the worker, 

 and is to-day the worker, physically, mentally, and morally im- 

 proving himself at the European's physical, mental, and moral 

 expense, producing an unfortunate class whom we know as 

 " poor whites." But the native's labour is not efficient ; and who 

 shall estimate the retardation from this cause alone? 



If we take a rainfall map, we find that, generally speaking, 

 and excluding the coastal belt on the West and South Coasts, 

 the rainfall increases as one goes east or north: that is, the 

 '■rainfall is lowest in the West, and increases as one goes east; 

 lower in the South, and increases as one goes north. Again, 

 excludino- the West and South coastal belts, the soil is richer 

 in the West than in the East, in the South than in the North. 

 The poi)ulation is distributed less, however, according to rich- 

 ness of soil than according to rainfall, especially regularity of 

 rainfall, which determines the productivity of the soil and the 

 ability of the soil to sustain i)oi)ulation. But, unfortunately, 

 nearly the whole of the country, so far as rainfall is concerned, 

 is dependent upon a summer precipitation, somewhat irregular 

 and uncertain, and over a huge area deficient as well. Rainfall 

 must, to a great extent, dictate agricultural policy and methods. 

 At the same time, there is a modifying element in the soil, in 

 tliat richness, where it can 1)e turned to account by irrigation, 

 will counterbalance the eiTects of a small or an irregular rain- 

 fall ; and there is also this further modifying element, that the 

 smaller the rainfall, the greater the freedom from stock diseases. 

 However, under very varying conditions of soil and climate we 

 have developed a variety of agricultural activities which it would 

 probably not be incorrect to call unique, and which presage a 

 hoj^eful future. 



Coming now to circumstances as they obtain to-day, we have 

 a small rural population scattered over a vast area — a population 

 possessing attributes inherited from virile, industrious, frugal, 

 tenacious, enterprising stocks, moulded by physical and political 

 conditions into a hardy, well-developed, assertive people, and 

 inevitably being fused into an indivisible nation ; but, unfortu- 

 nately (speaking from an agricultural point of view), labouring 

 under the disabilities imposed by distance, by uncertain climatic 

 circumstances, and by constant contact with an inferior race. 

 Consider the length of railway lines and of roads that had, and 

 still have, to be constructed, the cost and upkeep of these, the 

 number and cost of bridges, the consequent cost of transport, 



