CLIMATE. 205 



considered in selecting areas for planting. Hard pan occurs 

 over large areas which should be avoided, and so should stiff 

 black clay soils. In the forest zones, much soil is sour and 

 requires thorough working before it can be planted, making 

 planting expensive. 



3. Climate. 



Owing to a combination of latitude and topography, the 

 temperature is remarkably even throughout the Union. The 

 mean annual temperature of Capetown is 62 degrees Fahr., and 

 that of Pretoria, 1,000 miles north of it, is 63-5. The mean 

 annual range differs from 12 degrees on the south coast to 

 28 degrees on the Transvaal plateau. The extreme shade 

 temperature on record is 125 degrees in January, and 6 degrees 

 in June. Frosts are practically unknown on the coast, but occur 

 in the interior. Especially early frosts are doing damage to 

 plantations on the higher parts of the country. Indigenous 

 forests are only rarely touched by frost, and then the damage is 

 generally of a trivial character. 



The rainfall in the different parts of the Union differs very 

 much, both as regards the quantity and the time of year during 

 which it falls. In the western and south-western coastal district 

 most of the precipitations occur during winter ; the rest of the 

 Union is essentially a summer rainfall area, the weather during 

 April to September being practically dry. Generally the rainfall 

 increases from west to east, and is greatest along the mountain 

 ranges of the south, south-east and east forming the great 

 escarpment. The indigenous forests follow the rainfall and are 

 thus found along the coastal belt on the seaward slopes of the 

 escarpment from the Cape Peninsula to the Zoutpansberg 

 mountains. They seldom occupy any extensive area con- 

 tinuously, but are almost always found in isolated patches, from a 

 few to a few thousand acres, in the kloofs or ravines and facing 

 south or south-east. In the interior also the rainfall becomes 

 heavier on going east. Thus, in the western part of the Orange 

 Free State and the Transvaal, the average annual fall is about 17 

 inches which increases in the eastern Orange Free State to about 

 28 inches, and in the eastern Transvaal to about 38 inches. The 

 western and central interior part of the Cape province is very dry, 



