SOUTH AFRICA IN A FARMING LIGHT. 19 



Birds as yet are only being fanned to a small extent 

 in the Free State, and scarcely at all in the Transvaal 

 and Natal. 



Should the birds continue healthy on the coast lands, 

 then these will undoubtedly be the best, as from the abun- 

 dant herbage and large rainfall a very much heavier stock 

 could be kept on the same acreage as inland ; whilst the 

 old ploughed lands would always produce succulent 

 weeds that they are so fond of, and the farmer could 

 grow his own grain for them : and it may be it will 

 prove so, as the ticks that are so detrimental to other 

 stock can only retain a hold in three places on the 

 Ostrich, namely, under the thighs, and on the head and 

 upper neck — all places where the bird cannot get at 

 them to pull them off. And the stones and alkalies in 

 which this part is deficient can readily be supplied to 

 them in an artificial form. 



Any one who has been in Australia, or has read 

 much of the immense scale on which wool-growing is 

 carried on there, where a hundred thousand sheep owned 

 and managed by one man is not uncommon, and where 

 ten thousand is held to be the smallest number that can 

 be profitably worked, and then compares the Cape, 

 where ten thousand is a rarity, and a man with three 

 thousand is looked upon as well to do, would think that 

 the soil and climate of Australia are superior. But it is 

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