EARLY DEVELOPMEXT OF SOUTH AFRICA. 115 



Company itself was making experiments with the growing of 

 tobacco, hemp, flax, indigo and cotton, and encouraged the 

 farmers to grow olives. Whether through inertia to continue 

 these experiments or not having a suihcient knowledge of the 

 soil and climatic conditions, it is certain that many products which 

 flourish to-day failed to give the Government encQuragement to 

 persevere. The two Governors van der Stel made every effort 

 to encourage tree planting, as they observed that the indigenous 

 forests were rapidly becoming denuded. A wise regulation 

 required ever^^one who felled a tree to plant an oak in its place. 

 Many of the freehold grants of land stipulated that the grantee 

 was to plant annually at least one hundred oak trees on his 

 property. 



There was one drawback to the development of this agricul- 

 tural colony — there were no roads or bridges to speak of. A little 

 more than three-quarters of a century ago this defect was partly 

 remedied. Distances from Capetown, the only market for the 

 farmer of the 18th century, were great. The means of transport 

 from the outlying places were by ox wagon. The roads traversed 

 were little more than beaten tracks. The mountain barriers 

 crossed were steep and dangerous and in some cases required 

 several days to pass. Both man and beast suffered and ran the 

 danger of losing their lives in passing over the rough track, over 

 boulders and inclines on these mountains. Towards the middle 

 of last century an earnest attempt was made to have proper lines 

 of communication constructed in various parts of the country by 

 making use of convict labour. 



The establishment of a Central Road Board soon justified 

 itself. Places which before were inaccessible became easier to 

 reach. Attention was now given to fertile areas, which the 

 farmer had not cared to cultivate because of his distance from and 

 the trouble to reach a market. Villages were, as it were, brought 

 nearer to the farmers on account of good roads, and they in turn 

 were in close communication with neighbouring places. Hamlets, 

 villages and towns began to spring up in succession. In short, the 

 construction of better lines of communication and the bridging of 

 rivers brought prosperity and progress to the colony. The cross- 

 ing of unfordable rivers which, in the rainy season, kept the 

 traveller for days on the one side before he could get over had 

 made travelling tedious, dangerous and long. All this was 

 overcome by properly constructed bridges. 



But a new era was to add to this progress. The introduction 

 of the railway, half a century ago, meant much for the country. 

 While the extension of the railway line was at first very slow, 

 nevertheless, it gave a means by which the farmer could get his 

 produce to a market in a shorter time and with less risk and 

 inconvenience. It is interesting to compare the lines of communi- 

 cation as opened by the early Dutch explorers during the 17th and 

 18th centuries with those by the railway line nearly two centuries 

 later. The Dutch East India Company was not slow in sending 

 out men to examine the country to ascertain its trade possibilities, 

 as well as to get a knowledge of the natives, its geographical 

 features and its mineral wealth. Most of the early expeditions 



