THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 427 



have dried up or diminished, and the rainfall has- 

 been hindered or absolutely driven away. 



As Mr. Gamble, late hydraulic engineer to the 

 Cape Government, has remarked : " The wandering- 

 sheep-farmer goes on to Crown lands and cuts down 

 the trees so that his goats may feed on the leaves ; 

 the Kaffir destroys thousands of saplings in the 

 Kaffrarian forests to restore his easily and frequently 

 burnt hut . . . . ; large areas along the Hart River 

 and elsewhere have been denuded of the kameel 

 dorn (acacia) tree to supply firewood for the 



machinery at the diamond-fields." 



" Erosions," caused by the incessant tramphng 

 backwards and forwards to kraal of useless and 

 unwieldy flocks, " forrh into canyons thirty feet 

 deep and upwards, and take off the surface-water 

 and under-drain the land." Nature has in her turn 

 retaliated, and the parched earth, deprived of the 

 shade and moisture of its trees, and worn out by 

 over-grazing, has proved comparatively valueless. 



But happily new methods and new ideas are 

 being brought into prominence by the better class 

 of farmers, and these wasteful systems are gradually 

 disappearing. The Irrigation Acts of 1877, 1879 

 and 1880 afford great facilities to the colonists, and 

 although the Dutch farmers are from ignorance, 

 inertness, and mortgage difficulties, slow to take 

 advantage of them, they are gradually making way. 

 Irrigation is, in truth, only just beginning to be 

 properly appreciated at the Cape, yet already it has 

 wrought wonderful results. A perusal of the Cape 

 Irrigation Commission Report for 1883, and of the 

 Cape Government Official Handbook for 1886, will 

 demonstrate the extraordinary results attainable 



