RHODESIA 237 



from the United States, in the persons of Mr. R. Walsh and Mr. 

 H. Fleming. Be it understood these are not cowboys, but 

 gentlemen of education, who have made it their business in life 

 to study cattle and their management, beef production, and 

 the marketing thereof. Mr. Walsh directed a big ranch in 

 America, and Mr. Fleming had twenty-one years' experience 

 learning the business, as he puts it, " all sides up." It has been 

 asked in Rhodesia why South Africans were not engaged, and 

 the answer is that ranching was not known in that country, 

 and that the huge undertaking necessary would have seemed 

 beyond the range of men accustomed to handle cattle in small 

 numbers. The United States is the biggest cattle country in 

 the world, and its ranchmen have " thought in thousands," 

 and handled the conditions which threaten to overwhelm the 

 manager who is not used to cattle by tens of thousands. There 

 is a boldness in the design of a large ranch that must rather 

 dismay the cautious man, and Mr. Fleming relates that when 

 he went on the market once to buy 1 50 bulls at one swoop the 

 eyes of an old-timer nearly popped out as he cried : " One 

 hundred and fifty ! My word, I thought I was going strong 

 when I bought three at a go ! " South African breeders know 

 cattle fore and aft, top and bottom, but they did not have the 

 experience of ranchmen, and accordingly the Chartered Com- 

 pany sent to the United States for two cattlemen of proved 

 knowledge, capacity and tact. The two stepped into their 

 places quietly, carved out one million acres from the unoccu- 

 pied land, divided this enormous area into seven blocks, and 

 set about building up a beef strain, on the bedrock of the small 

 but hardy native stock ; and they have gone their way un- 

 obtrusively, working out their ideas without forcing their 

 opinions on others. Liebig's Ranch followed the same large 

 lines of development, but not the same policy of breeding. 



It will be seen by the foregoing that the possibilities of 

 Rhodesia as a beef -producing country are enormous, and fair 

 supplies of excellent beef can be looked for in the immediate 

 future. To the west there is another very excellent fertile 

 country in Bechuanaland, containing 225,000 square miles of 

 ideal cattle country. However, the cattle at present are of the 

 native type, and very little has been done in improvements so 



