great odds, he could not, hardy as he is, work under the same eon-^ 

 ditions as the yet harder Africander ox, he could not do the same 

 amount of work on veld feed and owing to the undeveloped condi- 

 tion of the agricultural resources no suificient extra feed could be 

 supplied. The muel and ox largely filled the place of the ox. 



The problem of feediiig is the greatest drawback that prevents 

 the horse to be moi'e generally used iji Agriculture, and if he is 

 given the same care and feed as the mule the farmers will not have 

 one overworked team of mules or oxen and a troop of 30-100 mares 

 and ycung horses running about useless. 



Between the census of 1904-1911 Natal and Eastern Transvaal 

 lost the greater part of their cattle through the ravages of East 

 Coast fever; the decrease of cattle in Natal (1911) was 210.81 per 

 cent. This gap was filled vip mainly by asses and mules and the 

 census returns show an increase of these of these animals of 250.81 

 percent for mules and 1,053.73 percent for asses. This increase 

 was made by importation from abroad and from the neighboring 

 provinces which show a decrease of almost 50% in the number of 

 mules. ^ The importation of mules and the high prices are altogether 

 out of harmony with the economics of animal husbandy. It is un- 

 doubtedly the result of the disasters caused by East Coast fever ; 

 but at the bottom of it all is the feeding problem and the general ne- 

 glect to make better use of the troop of horses. The well-bred hardy 

 Cape Horse will do the same amount of work given the same care 

 and feed as the average Cape bred mule besides this the team of 

 mares can refill the team many times over and the gelding can be 

 put to infinitely morse uses than the mule or ass — simple truths that 

 are unhappily realized by too small a number of farmers, and they 

 are worth considering since the breeding for beef is coming up very 

 rapidly and the usual large and strong trek-ox will become scarcer 

 while the slow ass will also disappear from the areas of greater ag- 

 ricultural development. 



The horse population or the Union in 1911 is given as 719.414 

 and this number increases to 813,345 if mules are included. Of the 

 almost 6,000,000 inhabitants, only about one and a quarter million 

 are whites. Excluding the natives and other colored people and 

 their live stock we find that each white person possesses : 



.65 horse and mule, or .90 when asses are in eluded ; 2.66 cat- 

 (1) Census Eeturns Live Stock — 1911- 



110 



