A KARROO FARM. 247 



kraal. The advantages of this system are manifest 

 and manifold. Under the old plan, obtaining at the 

 time of my visit, the flocks spent a good part of the 

 day in journeying backwards and forwards to kraal, 

 in the hot summer weather a matter of much fatigue 

 and distress ; thus from the perpetual trampling to 

 and fro of mighty flocks, vast portions of the veldt 

 were completely destroyed. Much of the manure 

 which might have added to the fertility of the soil 

 was wasted in the kraals, or only partially utilized 

 in its sun-dried form as fuel. By these weary 

 perambulations to and fro, paths were hollowed out, 

 which increased in process of years into ravines, down 

 which, in time of rainfall, the water poured away and 

 was wasted, instead of being distributed equally over 

 the surface of the soil. It is not too much to say 

 that wire-fencing, now being adopted by all progressive 

 farmers at the Cape, will effect immense saving, not 

 only by the rest afforded to the pastures, but by the 

 increased feeding and repose, and, consequently, 

 much-improved condition thus afforded to the sheep 

 and goats. 



But we have at length seen every kraal emptied 

 of its hungry contents, and have watched the stream 

 of sheep and goat-life pouring out far upon the 

 plains. 



Breakfast is now announced, and with healthy 

 appetites, sharpened by the clear bracing air of 

 this elevated plateau — here some 3,000 feet above 

 sea level — we follow our host to his comfortable 

 dining room. Before us is spread a typical Cape 

 breakfast ; here is springbok fry (karroo grown, 

 though it is more delicate and more savoury than 

 that of the tenderest lamb ever nurtured in verdant 



