RHODESIA 233 



being established at once. That will enable us to deal with 

 meat other than the big export which we are arranging for 

 later — when the meat will be sent to Europe either chilled or 

 frozen. Apart from what the chartered company is doing, 

 several big ranching companies have been started, or are being 

 started, in Rhodesia. As their aim also is the exportation of 

 meat, the country should take a big place in the meat market 

 at an opportune time." 



There are 3,961,600 acres of valuable grazing land in, the 

 Hartley district. In that 6000 odd square miles, the variety of 

 soils is such as to ensure every possible requirement for cattle- 

 raising or for ranching. Heavy black humus-filled land or rich 

 red loams alternate frequently with stretches of sand veld. If 

 there be those disposed to despise the granite soil, let it be 

 known that among the biggest ranchers there are men who 

 will have no sort of a farm that does not include a proportion 

 of this sand veld in, its grazing. 



There are eight large rivers and their tributaries meandering 

 through this territory, and when it is mentioned that lime is 

 prevalent along these streams, it can be well understood that 

 Hartley cattle have most of the conditions favourable for 

 heavy frame forming. 



Before the rinderpest swept across Africa and well-nigh 

 exterminated the game, Hartley was one of the most heavily 

 stocked grazing grounds of the country. Rhodesia then was 

 like a game reserve in the extent of the herds of bovines it 

 fostered. The remnants of the big buck of these herds had 

 begun to re-establish their depleted numbers at the time the 

 suspicion began to fall upon the larger game as carriers of the 

 tsetse fly. Consequently, since a known " fly " area came to 

 be defined, and was thrown open for promiscuous shooting of 

 even Royal game, the kudu, sable, eland, waterbuck and others 

 of the antelopes, with the elephant, rhino and hippopotamus, 

 have been harried almost to extinction once more, and the 

 parallel shrinking of that tsetse belt is well recognised. It is 

 probable that that area is responsible — though it is a fraction 

 of the total extent of the district — for a widespread belief that 

 Hartley is unhealthy for stock. There is one large ranch in 

 the midst of the " flv '" belt ; and one farmer, at least, who 



