160 



Remarks on the Culture of Exotic Vegetables, adapted 

 for the Soil and Climate of South Africa. By Mr. 

 J. Bowie, Member of the South African Institution. 



[Read at the South African Institution.] 



A principal object of the South African Institution being that ot 

 local Improvement, as far as the present resources of the Colony 

 will admit, will, I trust, be a sufficient apology for submitting 

 the present paper to the consideration of the Society ; and, where 

 any of the hints therein can be reduced to practice, there is 

 little doubt of the results proving of the highest importance to 

 the Colony, whose welfare and prosperity depend so much upon 

 an unwearied and persevering attention to the culture of the 

 soil, and consequent increase of such produce, as the localities 

 or resources of the Landholder permit. 



To render those hints of service, and familiar to the colonists, 

 I have confined myself to the enumeration of a few Exotic 

 Vegetables already in the colony, or to such as may be readily 

 obtained from the countries with which we have frequent 

 communication. 



In the list, a few kinds of trees are mentioned, from which an 

 immediate return of profit cannot be expected in the production 

 of their fruit ; but the planter should keep in mind, that he has 

 an imperious duty to perform ; in the improvement of his estate, 

 for the benefit of posterity, and that the immediate benefits 

 derived from such planting, are shade and protection to other 

 crops required, for his daily support; and in another view, 

 interesting to himself, by raising the value of his estate far above 

 those which are yet suffered to remain in a condition, little or ire 

 better than they were at the first period of the colonization of 

 the country. 



In the selection of the plants, and in pointing out the different 

 parts of the colony, where very reasonable hopes may be 

 entertained of their thriving, less dependence has been placed 

 on speculative theory, than on practical observation, and a due 

 consideration of the affinities of several indigenous plants with 

 those now recommended for culture. 



The neighbouring inhabitants of the forests along the South- 

 eastern shore of this Colony, would deem it superfluous to plant 

 trees for timber or firewood ; but such of them as have visited 

 the interior regions, especially the Sneeuwberg, and have 

 experienced the scorching rays of the Sun by day, and felt the 

 piercing effects of the cold by night, and recollect that in some 

 of those bleak situations not a slick is to be found wherewith to 

 kindle a fire, must admit the advantage of such practice. 



The inhabitants of those regions having no theoretical works 

 to excite them, nor any practical experiments to teach them 



