16 CHAPTER II 



mitigate this inefficiency, as witness the eastern Free State, 

 where the system in vogue, operating through a generation, has 

 produced very satisfactory results. 



The apathy of the European employer, coupled with the 

 pernicious three months' system of the Transvaal, are the chief 

 factors preventing the same efficiency being attained in other 

 crop producing districts. The three months' system may be 

 well adapted to ranching, but to no other system of farming. 



Transportation. — Under the poor facilities for transpor- 

 tation, one finds one of the most serious drawbacks to crop pro- 

 duction. This factor, coupled with the sparse population, is 

 mainly the reason why some areas of enormous crop potentiali- 

 ties are relatively undeveloped. Unfortunately, too, South 

 Africa does not possess the inland waterways offering cheap 

 transportation such as are found in a country like Canada. 



Capital and Kdral Organisation. — On the whole farmers 

 are under-capitalised for the projects undertaken. In most 

 cases the South African farmer invests too much in acquiring 

 his land, probably because he wishes to avail himself of the 

 unearned increment due to the abnormal increase in the price 

 of land found in young countries. 



They are extremely unorganised, and in consequence the 

 long term, cheap credit required by them is unobtainable, and 

 they therefore farm under disadvantageous conditions with 

 regard to capital when compared with their brothers in, say, 

 Denmark. 



Disease. -The development of some areas, particularly in 

 the lowveld, has been seriously restricted owing to diseases like 

 malaria in human beings and ngana in animals. 



Natural Features. — The amount of arable land, owing 

 to the rugged mountainous condition of the country, is very 

 limited in parts like East Griqualand. Indeed, the percentage 

 of valuable arable land in the Union is very much less than 

 many optimists would have us believe. 



