EARLY DAYS B 
in incubators, many of which were sold as soon as hatched and 
the rest reared in “foster-mothers.” On the utility side we built up 
our own laying strains by trap-nesting and selection with excel- 
lent results. But this venture soon fizzled out as we found that 
the exhibition side, although very profitable for successful exhibi- 
tors, was full of snags. The worst of these was that there was a 
clique of judge-exhibitors who had the spirit of mutual aid highly 
developed, so that when one of the band was judging the rest 
scooped all the best prizes. Having the adventurous spirit we de- 
cided to sell up and go abroad. In this we were distinctly fortu- 
nate in having a father who was well connected in City circles. 
He knew a number of directors of companies with interests in the 
colonies and foreign lands, so we had the choice of going to Su- 
matra on a rubber plantation or to the northern Transvaal on a 
large experimental farm. We decided on the latter and were ap- 
pointed as assistant overseers. This appointment did not mean that 
we had been pushed into a soft job. We started off with practi- 
cally no money and had to repay the passage money out of our 
eventual earnings. 
South Africa before the First World War seemed to me a de- 
lightful place with plenty of sunshine, an exhilarating atmosphere, 
and a good living for anyone who cared to take his coat off and 
work. 
The farm was in the bushveldt and was studded with high 
kopjes—making the scenery delightfully varied. Compared with 
English farms it was enormous, being about ten thousand acres. 
Over a hundred natives were employed but only two other Euro- 
peans. The chief crop was maize, but all kinds of experimental 
crops such as ground-nuts, soya beans, cotton, teff grass, lucerne, 
velvet beans, etc., were grown, all of which I learned to sow and 
reap. The planter was pulled by oxen not well trained for the job, 
and their constant zigzagging was a source of embarrassment, as 
every farmer likes to see neat, parallel lines of growing crops, 
whereas these were destined to resemble isotherms on a chart. 
Planting was done in the heat of the summer, for that was the 
rainy season. The power of the sun was greater than one imagined 
until experience had taught its lesson. The first time I left my 
planter at midday in order to have some lunch I learned that an 
