History of the Laboratories. 



The Veterinary Eesearch Laboratories of the Transvaal Department 

 of Agriculture comprise a large block of buildings on the farm Ondersts- 

 poort, situated eight miles to the north of Pretoria. 



The site was chosen first, for its central position, being in the vicinity 

 of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal; the laboratory is in close touch 

 with the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture and the Govern- 

 ment of the Colony. It is also well served by the railway, Pretoria being 

 a junction for the eastern line to Delagoa Bay, the northern line to 

 Pietersburg, and the western line to Rustenburg, and on the south by 

 the line via Germiston, it is connected up with the south-eastern line to 

 Natal, the south-western line via Johannesburg to Potchefstroom, and 

 the Cape border, and by the direct southern line to Orange River Colony 

 border at the Vaal River. 



A railway siding at the laboratory makes it possible for animals from 

 infected areas to be sent through in quarantine with the least possible 

 delay, and a good service of local trains runs between the siding and 

 Pretoria. The laboratory is also connected by telephone with the Pretoria 

 Central Exchange, and in this way is in direct telephone communication 

 with Johannesburg and the whole of the Rand, as well as the towns of 

 Pietersburg, Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, and Zeerust. 



A site to the south of Pretoria would in some ways have been pre- 

 ferable had other considerations been as easily satisfied, but climatic 

 conditions had to be considered, and the high veld would not have offered 

 the same facilities of stu.dying the progress of the diseases of the low veld 

 as the situation that was decided upon. Being practically on the verge 

 of the bushveld, it has a climate perceptibly warmer than Pretoria, but 

 at the same time perfectly healthy for human beings ; it is consequently 

 not only geographically but also climatically centrally situated. 



A further consideration in the selection of a site was the necessity 

 of there being attached to the laboratory a farm of sufficient area to 

 afford grazing ground for the live stock in addition to some arable land 

 on which to raise crops for feeding the stabled animals under experiment, 

 and so it would not have been convenient for the laboratory to have been 

 situated in the town itself. 



The portion of the farm Onderstepoort that was purchased meets all 

 these requirements. In area it is 512 acres, and is now divided up into 

 paddocks. Sixty acres are under cultivation, irrigated from a furrow 

 taken from thg Aapies River, which flows along the whole of the eastern 



