RHODESIA 157 



your calves run with their mothers. Take care that your stock 

 are not roughly handled ; remember that beef cattle never want 

 to lose an ounce of flesh from the day they are born. 



"Water is a very important question all over Africa, where 

 stock suffer a great deal through want of it. If you have not a 

 running stream all the year round on your farm, erect windmills 

 wherever j^ossible. They will soon repay the outlay. 



"If you water your stock from dams or pools, fence them off, 

 and erect a pump and troughs, so that your stock always have 

 clean water to drink. Remember that stock should never have 

 far to go for water ; it is wonderful how stock will pull through 

 a bad winter if they have a plentiful supply of water. 



"In a country like Rhodesia, subject to a long, dry winter, the 

 use of succulent winter feed for stock is very necessary to keep 

 the animals in condition and maintain growth, especially so in 

 the case of beef steers. Maize silage is one of the cheapest and 

 most valuable forms of stock food. Every farmer and rancher 

 should always have a good supply in hand in case of a drought or 

 a bad season. Also remember that once the beef trade is estab- 

 lished, the most profitable method of disposing of your grain vn\\ 

 be to send it to the market on four legs." 



Before rinderpest decimated the cattle in 1896 and 1897 in- 

 numerable herds browsed on the well-grassed lands of Rhodesia, 

 which also swarmed with game. These cattle were chiefl}^ owned 

 by the natives, who largely estimated their wealth and social 

 status by the head of stock they possessed. Then came the 

 appalling catastrophe of the rinderpest invasion, followed by 

 East Coast fever, and the land was left desolate. The re- 

 stocking of the country was largely from the north, and cattle 

 were brought from as far as German East Africa. Angoni 

 cattle, which are a humped breed, were largely introduced. 

 Common native bulls were, of course, used at first ; but as the 

 white man began to pay some attention to cattle breeding, 

 Africander, Polled Angus, Shorthorn, Friesland, Devon, Sussex, 

 and Hereford bulls were introduced with more or less success. 



Encouraging success has attended the efforts of those interested 

 in sheep raising in Rhodesia. Where the soil and pasture is 

 suitable, the Merino breed is being bred and reared most success- 

 fully. Exhaustive trials have been conducted, and it can now 

 be confidently asserted that so long as high-class sheep are used, 

 the future of the sheep-raising industry is safe. Sheep are 

 proving more profitable than other classes of stock, largely on 

 account of the excellent prices which can be made for the wool. 



