The Empty Land 



mines. Meanwhile, the best sign of rural pro- 

 gress is the rise in the price of farm land, which 

 in many parts throughout the Union within the 

 past few years has doubled or even trebled in 

 value. Among the causes of this rise is the 

 extraordinary success of dry-farming. Dry land, 

 which a short time ago was utterly useless, is 

 now producing excellent crops, and this mode 

 of farming is the cheapest in the world. 



The first thing that strikes the stranger in 

 South Africa is the diversity of its climate. 

 For example, the rainfall throughout the Union 

 may vary in a single season from one inch per 

 annum at Walfish Bay and in Xamaqualand, 

 to one hundred inches on the Wood Bush 

 Mountains, North-Eastern Transvaal, and Table 

 Mountain, Cape Town. Moreover, the high 

 veld of the Transvaal may be bitter cold in 

 the winter-time, while the temperature of the 

 coastal regions of Natal, during the summer 

 months, is, as you know, often tropical. Now 

 this wide range of climate renders possible a 

 wide range of crops. In no other country of the 

 world — not even in the United States of America 

 — do you find the same amazing wealth of 

 agricultural products — from oranges to 

 ostriches, from tea to angora goats, from maize 

 n 193 



