394 



THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



troop for escort service to the late Duke 

 of Edinburgh — much the same as the 

 order for similar service issued in respect 

 to the recent visit of the Duke and 

 Ducliess of Cornwall and York. 



Cultivation. 

 The cultivation is in three different 

 localities — about the homestead, down a 

 valley about a couple of miles away, much 

 of the land being under water from a 

 three mile furrow, and at Doornkloof, on 

 the banks of the Unikomanzi, where there 

 is a furrow of a mile. Roughly, I should 

 respectively describe the localities as 

 warm, very warm, and hot. About the 

 homestead sugar cane for fodder thrives 

 well. Crops of potatoes, etc., grown at 

 Doornkloof, reach maturity a month 

 earlier than at the top farm. 



MABELE. 



What most struck me was a kind called 

 by Mr. Nicholson the bird-proof. One of 

 the greatest drawbacks to mabele cultiva- 

 tion, as many know only too well, is the 

 difficulty of protecting it when reaching 

 its ripening stage. Kafirs can generally 

 find plenty of children and old women 

 for ihe work, but the white man only 

 rarely has the labour at hand or to spare. 

 Therefore a bird-proof mabele should be 

 popular. The plant is of average height, 

 and the grain is larger in size, and per- 

 haps slightly superior in quality. The 

 grain heads, instead of standing erect, 

 droop downwards, and therein lies the 

 safety from the attention of birds. 

 Whether future generations of birds will 

 be baffled by this disposition of the seed 

 is another matter ; at present the corn 

 escapes from their depredations. Another 

 kind grown by Mr. Nicholson is short in 

 the stalk — about four feet. He started it 

 origin?llj from a small quantity of the 

 seed sent in a letter to him from India. 

 The corn is better than that of the com- 

 mon kind, and it has two great advantages, 

 firstly, storms which lay low the long 

 kind, pass over it without doing injury ; 

 and, secondly, it is much easier to harvest 

 — there are none of the neck and arm 

 aches from working above the head. At 

 the late Richmond Show, Mr. Nicholson 

 took all the mabele prizes. 



Mealies and Grubs. 

 "Until recently," said Mr. Nicholson, 

 «'we all thought safety from the grub 



could be found in late planting. Faith in 

 that direction has now passed away. We 

 now try to plant as early as possible, and 

 sometimes the result is fortunate, but it is 

 all a matter of chance. The dry Springs 

 of late years are, of course, against early 

 planting. A couple of years ago I had a 

 ten- acre field which looked a perfect 

 picture, and several neighbours remarked 

 upon it, saying what a tremendous crop 

 it would give. I went to have a look at 

 it and was disillusioned. Every plant 

 was riddled by grub. Grub in the 

 mealies and grub in the mabele is one of 

 the greatest curses from which we suffer. 

 The yearly loss inflicted by this pest is 

 enormous, and anyone who could show 

 some practical way of dealing with it 

 would be a benefactqr indeed ! 



Blight. 



" The blight which used to concern us 

 a lot is now passing away. There is a 

 curious thing about it which seems to 

 escape general notice, and that is, that 

 plants which may still be affected by it 

 are not barren as formerly— they carry 

 cobs." 



Forage. 



To get a rust-proof forage, Mr. Nichol- 

 son experimented considerably, and he 

 believes he has succeeded. He tried eight 

 specially recommended kinds. The one 

 which with him remains proof, he 

 imagines, may be the same as the " Map- 

 stone." Mr. Mapstone, it may be re- 

 membered by those who read my " inter- 

 view " with him, got the seed, so to say, 

 accidentally, and at first was inclined to 

 demand damages from the firm which 

 supplied it for not sending seed according 

 to order. Mr. Nicholson has good reason 

 to be satisfied. Chance seed, for instance, 

 among Algerian, which has rusted to the 

 ground, have thrown up beautifully clean 

 plants, absolutely free from rust. 



Potatoes. 

 Mr. Nicholson finds the Farly Rose 

 and Up-to-dates the best potatoes for 

 cultivating. His system of planting 

 struck me as better than that commonly 

 practised. The plough oxen do not walk 

 in open furrows, and in consequence dis- 

 place the seed, the furrows being closed 

 over immediately, but without a diagram, 



