N.\ri\K A(;Kr( uLTrKK. 1S9 



good, pure water, are also in use; and last, but not least, we 

 have storage dams artiticially constructed. Some 228 are 

 scattered through the Territories, most of them being con- 

 structed of earth and stone. 



In the main, however, while it is true that we find some 

 Traces of irrigation in the Transkei, yet, on the whole, the Natives 

 have not discovered the value of assisting nature in its beneficent 

 work. 



6. Large Farms. 



So much has been made of communal tenure that our minds 

 have become accustomed to think of the Natives as peasants 

 rather than farmers on a larger scale. Nevertheless, there are 

 not a few who possess and work farms. In some cases they 

 secured these farms as special grants from Government as a 

 reward for loyalty in the Kaffir wars, but in many cases the 

 more progressive men bought these farms for themselves. In 

 Matatiele district alone 25 farms, of an approximate value of 

 £50.000. are owned by Natives, and in Umzimkuki district we 

 find 50 farms belonging to Natives. It will thus be seen that 

 the Native is capable of working, and does in fact work, farms 

 of some size, that there is already a class of " landed gentry." 



In our survey, then, of Native agriculture we must realise 

 that, besides the small peasant-farmer who attempts to produce 

 in the main only sufficient food for the requirements of his own 

 family, we have a substantial class, well distributed through the 

 Territories, of large farmers who can. and do, produce large 

 crops. 



E^xcept. however, in the case of a few individuals, we find 

 that the methods of agriculture still belong to the old order of 

 things. 



We have already pointed out that the fields arc not enclosed, 

 and irrigation is but little practised by the people. The sugges- 

 tion that the Government should make enclosure a condition of 

 tenure in the surveyed districts, if adopted, would in itself work 

 a revohition. Such a change would be fundamental, and 

 besides making possible the employment of better implements 

 and methods, enclosure would give to the Native a new idea of 

 the ownership of land. These ideas are now very rudimentary, 

 but what a change would result if all the owners of property 

 in the Transkei realised what was involved in ownership — the 

 id^as concerning the values of the land, and of improvements, 

 wastage due to non-improvement, the need for making the 

 most of the limited amount owned* — in a word, revealing to 

 them the duties as well as the rights and privileges of ownership. 



* The interpretation to them of tlie fact that the amount of availahle 

 land is not unlimited. 



