What Brown Earth gave to the Blue 



thirty years ago we never had any wheat killed 

 by winter frosts, and every year we had a full 

 crop of peaches, which is now very rare. At 

 that time we had plenty of timber around our 

 fields and orchards ; now cleared away." 



That live stock thrive much better when they 

 are protected from the cold blasts of winter and 

 the trying heat of summer is common knowledge. 

 Thus shelter belts are of equal value against 

 the biting winter winds of the high veld and 

 the summer heat of the low veld. Lastly, the 

 forest can be turned into a farmer's savings 

 bank from which deposits may be drawn from 

 time to time. Two farmers, Messrs Matthew 

 and Dreyer, from a single erf in Burgersdorp, 

 just outside the town of Lichtenburg, cut last 

 winter seventy pounds worth of timber. These 

 eucalyptus -trees were planted six years ago, on 

 dry land, and uncared for. Every farm should 

 have its own forest. It may be only one acre 

 or ten thousand. The rural economists of 

 Europe recommend that 20 per cent, of the 

 farm should be laid down to forest — that is 

 to say, on a farm of 1000 acres 200 acres should 

 be planted with trees. What a wonderful 

 difference this would make to the climate and 

 crops of South Africa ! The farmer who plants 



75 



