268 THE 1 R RIG A Tl ON A GE. 



fertile as shown by the rich growth of grasses during the rainy season, 

 and if irrigation works on a large scale were established as they have 

 been in India and our own West, and the waste water of the rainy 

 season saved, millions of acres could be devoted profitably to agricul- 

 ture. 



"In the valleys of the Oliphant River and its tributaries, empty- 

 ing into the Atlantic, the Breede River which flows into the Indian 

 Ocean and the Zak and Hartebeeste, tributary to the Orange River, 

 many farms have been established. The crops of these sections de- 

 pend entirely upon the annual overflow caused by rains in the moun- 

 tains where these streams rise. The Dutch farmers who cultivte 

 most of this land, prefer to depend entirely upon nature. If urged to 

 take steps to irrigate in periods of long drouth, they invariably say: 

 'Oh it vill rain again.' Such uncertain and loose methods must neces- 

 arily give way before modern ideas and improved farming; much of 

 the land will eventually be reclaimed through the use of the vast vol- 

 ume of water now running to waste and a dense and progressive pro- 

 gressive population will build up the country. 



"The lands of the Transvaal Republic are of the same character 

 as those of the tableland of Cape Colony. On previous trips I have 

 been all through the Transvaal. Generally through the rainy season, 

 farmers can produce a crop of maize. But this is by no means sure, 

 owing to the uncertainty of the rainfall. The Transvaal strikingly 

 recalls to me our western plains. The monotony is relieved by occa- 

 sional table-shaped and conical mountains. During the dry months, 

 the Boer farmer migrates with his cattle and his family to the low- 

 lands along the rivers or coolies. He spends his time hunting, while 

 the children and Kaffir servants herd the cattle and sheep. Under the 

 existing conditions the grazing development of this part of the world 

 is limited. Transportation is too costly as yet to insure a profitable 

 marketing. But with the stimulus to home markets, incident to the 

 continued development of the mining industry, with its immense army 

 of laborers, the agricultural and pastoral industries will be put on a 

 different footing. Eventually they cannot but be of more importance 

 than the mines themselves. 



"I could not but think," concluded Col. Meacher, "while travel- 

 ing over some of the great stretches of unoccupied land of South 

 Africa, through which flow large rivers, how much land there is yet 

 in the world which will be eventually reclaimed to great productive- 

 ness through the storage of storm and waste waters. In simply these 

 two sections of the world with which I am acquainted, western Amer- 

 ica and South Africa, there must be upwards of a hundred million 

 acres of very fertile land which can all be made highly productive, 

 and mostly by the building of large storage reservoirs.'' 



