NATIVE AGRICULTURE. 185 



death is so awful that 1 am not surprised that the natives avoid, 

 as far as they can, even the possibihty of an accusation of the 

 kind. 



As we shall deal at a later stage with the influence witch- 

 craft has upon the methods of native agriculture, let us leave 

 this aspect for the present, in order to consider these methods 

 as thev are employed to-day by the mass of the people ; and 

 the first point is the manner of ploughing. Even so simple an 

 instrument as the i)lough is not properly understood by the 

 red Native, and conse(juently, instead of ploughing his fields 

 properly, he succeeds only in scratching the surface. The seed 

 is sown by broadcasting, and at one and the same time he sows 

 mealies, Kafir corn, pumpkins, beans, and sugar-cane. The 

 seed is ploughed in. and what escapes the plough is pressed in 

 by hand, or with the aid of the hoe. The harrow is used only 

 in rare cases. The seed is selected with some care, but the 

 tjelection is not made on scientific lines, nor are they careful to 

 reject the less mature grains at the extremities of the mealie 

 cobs, usually eliminated by the process of " tippitig " and 

 " butting." 



Year after year the same crops are gathered from the fields 

 without the slightest attem])t at rotation, and most of the fields 

 must by now be quite exhausted. In this connection one 

 wonders whether there is no j)ossibility of securing the same 

 result by simultaneous crops carefully chosen as one would by 

 a rotation of crops. Evidently the genius of the small agri- 

 culturist and his immediate reipurements preclude the adoption 

 of rotation, and if the same, or even approximately the same, 

 result were attainable, it would make a wider appeal to the 

 people than the more scientific course. The present broadcast- 

 ing method of sowing also tends to a haphazard distriljution oi" 

 the seed both as to position and depth. Consequently, we get 

 one plant interfering with the growth of another by overshadow- 

 ing it, or by taking the nourishment out of the soil away from 

 its roots, and in other ways. 



If the seed were drilled in. there would be a much better 

 result, for the relative distances between the plants would be 

 corrected, and^the seed would have a uniform depth; and, in 

 addition, it would make a big difference in the amount of labour 

 necessary in hoeing the ground. The introduction of better 

 methods in this direction alone would make a great difference 

 in the production. For one thing, the crops would stand the 

 drought better, and if rotation were employed, there would be a 

 notable difference in the resistance <>f disease. 



One result of the misfortunes which have befallen the 

 efforts of Native agriculturists in recent years has l:)een the 

 partial elimination of the poor mealies. Where the same mealies 

 are used from vear to \ear for seed, there necessarilv is deteriora- 



