428 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



from even the simplest forms of irrigation : "In 

 the district of Calvinia seventy bushels of 

 wheat for one bushel sown can be relied on, while a 

 return of one hundred and thirty bushels is not 

 -unfrequent" (Cape Handbook, p. 133). From my 

 own knowledge of the grain farms on the Fish and 

 Zak Rivers of Calvinia, I can assert that these 

 figures are not exaggerated. It may be noted also 

 that two crops yearly are obtainable (pp. 233, 234). 

 From page 117 of the Irrigation Commission's Blue 

 Book, I quote as follows : " At a farm called 

 Nooitgedacht, on the Lower Oliphants River, the 

 proprietor, thirty-five years ago, was unable to raise 

 sufficient bread for his own consumption. At this 

 moment it supports two hundred and sixty-five 

 souls, whites, exclusive of the coloured population ; 

 and this is the result of irrigation carried on in its 

 most primitive form, there being nothing beyond 

 ordinary Boer dams made in the bed of the river, 

 with furrows leading therefrom." 



But instances, far more remarkable than this, of 

 the extraordinary results obtainable from irrigation 

 in this favoured climate, are scattered broadcast 

 throughout the Irrigation Report. The principal 

 attempt by the Cape Government at the storage of 

 water on a large scale, has not long been completed, 

 and the results, although at present necessarily 

 imperfectly developed, already point to a gigantic 

 success. 



This work, the reservoir of Van Wyks Vlei 

 in the Western province, was accomplished in 

 a waterless tract of country — in Kayen Bult — ^a 

 southern prolongation of the Kalahari desert. The 

 catchment area is 460 square miles. The reservoir 



