The Cattle Farm of the Future. qi 



Nor must it he supposed that these African plains' 

 arc in any degree "wanting in fertility. The heavy 

 rains of the siuinner and autunni produce an 

 abundance of juicy grass, on Avdiich are raised 

 large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. Both in 

 Bechuanaland and in the Transvaal the amount of 

 live stock is very considei'ably less than the area 

 and the soil are capable of sustaining, and it A"\'ould 

 scarcelv be an exaggeration to assert that if, in 

 the course of centuries, all other supplies of meat 

 ibr the human race should be exhausted, the 

 African veldt could produce sufficient to fill the 

 stomachs of a stai'ving world. Cattle disease, 

 horse sickness, and the sheep scab at present otter 

 formidable obstacles to the rapid multiplication of 

 live stock. It is highly probable that science and 

 sanitary legislation will before long rempve or 

 mitigate these scourges of the farmer. Approach- 

 ing Vryburg, the railroad runs through the 

 " Native Reserve," a large district Avliiclr has been 

 set aside for exclusive occupation and cultivation 

 by the Southern Becliuana. The soil here is ^vell- 1 

 Avatered and of great fertility ; al)undant crops of 

 mealies (maize) can he easily I'aised, and many 

 other kinds of grain, j^otatoes, and various vege- 

 tables might be produced in lai'ge quantities were 

 the natives given to industry and agriculture. 

 Report, however, speaks but poorly of the 

 Southern Becliuana ; idle and insolent in good 

 years, helpless and mendicant in bad, it is 

 doubtful whether he will be long aljlc or per- 

 mitted to retain his hold upon a territory which 



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