260 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



undertake to dig such a well for you at the contract price of 

 three young bullocks, and you can secure those for 30/- to £2 

 each, the undertaking is not ruinous. Well water is, however, 

 only used here for domestic purposes, and sheep and cattle — 

 except cart oxen — are never given water. The fact is that the 

 abundant dew which they get on the grass in the morning is 

 quite sufficient for them. An abstemious breed has thus been 

 evolved under the special circumstances obtaining here, and 

 this remark applies to man as well as to animals. Many 

 villagers have to walk three hours or more to the nearest 

 water, and yet they remain on the hill or in the bush when 

 they might, if they cared, move nearer to a well or a river. 



" The rainfall here is irregular, and the land being light and 

 sandy, I must provide for periods of drought. This I am doing 

 by sowing some of the various forage seeds which during the 

 last drought have proved so helpful in South Africa to the 

 few farmers who had sown them — phalaris bulbosa, paspalum 

 dilatatum. festuca elatior. I am also trying saltbush, teosinte, 

 cowpeas, and velvet beans. 



" The appearance of a plough, or ' oxen spade,' as I describe 

 it to the natives, has caused a great sensation. It is, however, 

 as new to the oxen as to the men, and it will take a little time 

 until our oxen can plough a straight furrow. 



" The real difficulty as regards land is that of securing any 

 large freehold or even leasehold grazing land. All land is open 

 to allcomers, and as the population, though not very large, 

 is pretty well distributed over the whole country-side, it is 

 difficult to secure from the Government the exclusive use of 

 any large area. 



" You will no doubt inquire, ' What about the native sheep 

 and cattle ? ' Sheep are fairly large and strong, mostly white, 

 with black or brown spots. In first crosses with Merinos there 

 seems to be very little black, mostly white and brown. As far 

 us J can judge at present, the brown is short kemp, while the 

 longer wool is white. Thus a lamb which is quite brown at 

 birth, when it seems to be covered with only native-bred kemp, 

 may get quite white in time, when the wool appears. 



" As far as I can judge, both from the experience of British 

 East Africa and from the products of experiments started a 



