Farminc; in the Early Cape Days. 535 



fiesL meat or vegetables to strangers under pain of being deported 

 in addition to being fined nearly £70. The average price of meat 

 sold to the inhal)itants was from two to three pence per pound. 



Life on the Boeder 



of the colony during the eighteenth century was fraught with many 

 difficulties. Drought, followed by excessive rain and cold, caused 

 much stock mortality. Depredations liy the wily and swift-footed 

 Bushman made the farmer often abandon his farm. E-obberies were 

 of constant occurrence, and a reward of £3 per head was offered by 

 the authorities for every Bushman thief, male or female, delivered at 

 the Cape. Life was in danger, and the farmer had ever to be on the 

 look-out. What the Kaffirs were to the Eastern Province farmer of 

 last century, so the Bushmen were to the farmer living in the Graaff- 

 Eeinet during the prior century. This district at that time embraced 

 virtually the wliole of the Eastern Province of to-day, extended right 

 up to Colesberg-, and had as its western boundaries the Gamka River, 

 Zwartbergen Pange, and the Gamtoos Eiver. Almost every farm 

 household made its own soap and candles, very much on the same 

 principle as they are still made to-day in some parts of the country. 

 Soap was made from the fat of animals aud mixed with the ashes 

 of a shrub which grew in great quantities. Tavo kinds of candles 

 were made, " vet kerse " and " water kerse." The former was made 

 either from the pure tallow or tallow hardened with a vegetable 

 wax obtainable in many parts of the country. The tallow while still 

 soft was poured into tin candle moulds. The water candles were 

 made by dipping alternately the wick into the softened tallow and 

 water. In case of ailments every household depended upon their box 

 of " Hallische medicamenten " or " huisapotheek." Herbs and other 

 medicinal plants were often used, such as the buchu plant, and the 

 farmers' wives were adepts at giving " first aid " in cases of ordinary 

 illnesses. 



Once a year the farmer set off in his tented wagon for Capetown 

 with his butter, candles, soap, hides, etc., which he would sell or 

 barter foi household necessaries, such as tea, coff'ee, sugar, rice, etc. 

 Most of the crockery used on the farms was tin, as porcelain ware was 

 liable to be broken on the long journej'^s. • 



Wool Production. 



In closing this brief account of early farming life at the Cape, 

 a word might be said about the attempts to produce wool. As early 

 as the beginning of the eighteenth century the directors were anxious 

 to procure sheep's wool from South Africa. Between 1700 and 1704 

 a small quantity was sent, and Governor Willem Adriaan van der 

 Stel wrote to Holland for rams and ewes of good breed from Europe 

 and sheep from Java and Persia. Some years later a quantity of 

 wool was sent to Holland, but the quality proved bad. In 1713 we 

 read that one man got 500 lb. of wool from his Persian sheep, and 

 this was bought by the Government at 5d. per lb. Towards the last 

 years of the Company's regime a fair quantity of coarse wool was 

 produced. During the 1781 war some enterprising colonists formed 

 the idea of manufacturing blankets and cloth, as there had been a 

 great scarcity of blankets and rough cloth. 



