but the World War, which has also dragged South Africa into its 

 coils has of course forstalled this plausible and most necessary- 

 undertaking. 



From statistics available, the extent of destruction caused by 

 the war is realized in some measure. The Census Returns of 1904 

 showed that the number of horses and mules in the Cape Colony to 

 have been 419,963, a number less than that of thirteen years ago 

 (1891) and given as 444,147. If this was the state of affairs in the 

 Cape Colony, that of the two old Republics can easily be guessed. 

 The Census Returns of 1911 showed a still further decrease in the 

 Cape Colony and gave the number of horses in that colony as 

 381,021 ; this decrease, however, can be explained to some extent 

 by the fact that the old Republics bought large numbers of horses 

 in the Colony after the war and that some 9000 horses and mules 

 were exported to German South West Africa during the Herero 

 war as well as the exportation of breeding stock beyond the Union's 

 border, Portuguese territories and Rhodesia."*^ 



This wholesale destruction of the horse material was all the 

 more a pity since the old Republics took up horse-breeding very 

 seriousl}^ ever since their origin and establishment in 1845 and con- 

 tinued to breed good horses when the Colony neglected their studs. 



As has been mentioned before, agricultural statistics are scanty 

 and often unreliable. Agricultural institutions were in their in- 

 fancy and the Census Returns often very incomplete, owing to the 

 returns of some districts coming in late and the inclusion at one 

 time and the exclusion at another of the native territories and also 

 the frequent changing of the census areas. 



In the old Republics matters of this kind were worse and we 

 have to gather our sources from circumstantial evidences and side- 

 lights. The government was established on simple yet effective 

 lines and has been declared by great statesmen and scholars of con- 

 stitutional governments as being a model institution, which suited 

 a pastoral people excellently and afforded them the best content- 

 ment, assistance and happiness. Sir James Bryce considered the 

 government of the Orange Free State a model one and remarks that 

 "these simple Free State farmers were wiser in their simplicity 

 than some of the philosophers who at divers times planned and 



(96) Blueioolcs giving census Betums of 1891, 1904, 1911. 

 Also Ectimates''****E3:ports, etc. 1904-1909- 



52 



