AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES 

 OF THE TRANSVAAL 



VIEWS OF THE AUSTRALIAN. 



The war in South Africa has made us all more or less familiar 

 with the transvaal the existing conditions, the names of its cities, 

 its mineral resources, etc., of which the recent troubles but little was 

 known. Prom the illustrated lectures the country appears to be 

 rather desolate and offering but little encouragement to agricultural 

 efforts. It was, therefore, quite a surprise to read the account of an 

 Australian who is settled in the Transvaal, and find that the 

 generally-accepted idea of the country is a mistaken one. Under the 

 title of "The Agricultural and Pastoral Capabilities of the Trans- 

 vaal" the writer says, in the Australian Pastoralists' Review: 



"The Transvaal as a country of untold mineral wealth is known 

 to us all, but of its pastoral and agricultural capabilities but little 

 has been written. Speaking geographically, the surface of the 

 Transvaal is one continuous itretch of plateaus, the lowest of which 

 is several thousand feet above sea level, and the following three 

 divisions are usually made, viz: 



"1. The high veld, comprising a district south of a line stretch- 

 ing from Lydenburg in the east to Middleburg, along the Witwater- 

 srand to Litchenburg in the west. As the name implies, this division 

 is the highest plateau in the Transvaal, and although situated further 

 north than a semi-tropical country like Natal, its altitude makes the 

 climate one of the most perfect and equable in the world. 



"2, The bush veld includes all the country north of 25 deg.. 

 south latitude, in extent nearly half the Transvaal. The climate is 

 in most parts sub-tropical, and in the summer months low fever is 

 very prevalent. 



"3. The middle veld embraces the country between the two 

 other divisions. It is intersected with deep valleys, is very pictur- 

 esque, and generally wooded and watered. 



"The extent of pastoral and agricultural development at the 

 present time is ridiculously small. For this we must blame the 

 people, not the country. The Transvaal Boer will never kill himself 

 with hard work, though some allowance may be made for the primi- 

 tive ideas of the people, for the Boer's notion of farming is to produce 

 enough to satisfy his own immediate wants. Probably some excuse 

 for his want of energy in the past may be found in the fact that, up 

 till the advent of the gold fields, there was practically no local 



