220 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Much was expected by many people on the passing 

 of the Irrigation Act, by which private persons could 

 borrow pubhc money at a low rate of interest for irri- 

 o-ation works. It was thouo-ht that the colonv would be 

 able to produce its own food supply. We never 

 thought so. We considered that such people did not 

 sufficiently allow for the great difference in this 

 country, where the rainfall is uncertain and falls 

 quickly, and, from the mountainous formation of the 

 country, soon runs to the sea ; whilst in countries that 

 have been pre-eminently successful with irrigation, such 

 as Lombardy, the country is flat, the streams run 

 nearly level with their banks, and take their rise in 

 snow-capped mountains, which keep up a constant and 

 moderate supply all the year round. 



But with all these advantages which they possess, we 

 think it exceedinglj^ doubtful whether, if they had to 

 construct their works in the present day and compete 

 with a free trade in corn, it could be made to pay. 

 These works were constructed when communication with 

 the rest of the world was slow and uncertain — before the 

 present great granaries of the world were discovered, or 

 steam-ships had turned the world into one vast market 

 for the interchange of those commodities which each 

 country was the best adapted to p reduce. 



That a colony, that can grow its own breadstuffs, is in 



