RHODESIA 225 



one so often sees. Do not kraal at night if you can possibly 

 help it. I am afraid that on a great many farms cattle are 

 driven miles to water and good grazing, only to be brought 

 back over the same long tramp at night to be shut up until the 

 following morning. Remember, cattle do not stray naturally, 

 but only in search of food. Let 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 surfer a great deal through want of it. If you have not 

 a running stream all the year round on your farm, erect wind- 

 mills wherever possible. 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 established, the most profitable method of disposing 

 of your grain will 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 Rho- 

 desia, which also swarmed with game. These cattle were 

 chiefly 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 in- 

 vasion, followed by East Coast fever, and the land was left 

 desolate. The restocking 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 



