The Conquest of the Desert 



all skilled workers. Take wheat. Before it 

 reaches the railway at Prieska twelve shillings 

 must be paid on every single bag ! But far more 

 than that — a railroad via Prieska, Upington 

 and Kakamas would transform the unknown 

 Orange Valley into the grandest citrus centre 

 in the world. This is no exuberant statement. 

 No one who has seen Riverside can for a 

 moment doubt that the deep silt of the " Great 

 River " is far more nourishing than the desert 

 soil of California. 



Let us take a practical problem. The land 

 now under water owned by the Kakamas 

 labour colony is roughly 2500 morgen, or over 

 5000 acres. Take half that amount — 2500 

 acres — and figure out the potentialities of this 

 block of ground for orange-growing. If you 

 plant wide apart, 25 feet by 25 feet, you can 

 set out 70 trees to the acre. And at the end of 

 five years you may safely reckon on an average 

 of £1 per tree, or £70 per acre. This is all clear 

 profit. Therefore we find that 2500 acres, 

 multiplied by £70, gives the truly enormous 

 sum of £175,000 per annum. But, apart from 

 the mere culture of the orange, there must arise 

 a real industry of packing sheds and factories 

 for the manufacture of boxes. Packing oranges 



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