The Conquest of the Desert 



lovely day. By noon we had [reached Zout 

 Puts. Still struggling in the heavy sand of 

 the Molopo, crossing sand-dunes. Vegetation : 

 driedoorn and bushman grass. Arrived at the 

 farm Bloemfontein (Goldberg). Kindly enter- 

 tained. Stopped for an hour, and then pressed 

 on again till we struck a pan with water. Here 

 a farmer was busy ploughing and sowing corn 

 around the edge. As the water dries up, more 

 land is ploughed, until the whole dry pan is 

 planted with wheat. In such rich and moist 

 land it is expected that the corn will grow and 

 ripen without a single drop of rain. This is 

 surely the severest test of dry farming, and 

 opens up limitless possibilities for a rainless 

 durum wheat. Observed ganna bush around 

 the borders of the pan evidently a sign of good 

 dry land soil. Pushed on, and rejoiced in a fine 

 hard road, till we struck the first of Abeam's 

 mighty sand-dunes. Then Jacob, our desert 

 " whip," passed the time picking up broken 

 yoke-keys, hundreds of which are to be found 

 lying by the track-side the toll demanded by 

 the demons of those terrible dunes. Sunset 

 and outspan in the dunes. 



30 



