78 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



' "Lastly, I am desired by His Excellency, the British Ambassador, at 

 Washin^on, the Right Honorable James Bryce, O. M., P. C., to convey to 

 you his best wishes for the success of this Conference and to assure yoa 

 of the great interest he takes in the agricultural development of Western 

 America.' " 



Area of Transvaal. 



"The Transvaal, of which I wish to speak today, is one of the eleven 

 Provinces which make up the various States and Protectorates of British 

 South Africa. In size it is, roughly, 112,000 square miles, or in other 

 words, 71,680,000 acres. It is, therefore, the same size as the state of 

 Arizona. The last census, 1904, tells us that there are in the colony 

 only some 300,000 Europeans with over one million natives. It is thus 

 plain that the country is still very sparsely peopled, a fact that will be 

 better realized when I state that whereas the average size of a farm in 



Large Farms in Transvaal. 



the Tranisvaal is about 5,000 acres; in the United States it is 143, and in 

 England, 66. The Transvaal, as is widely known, is immensely rich in 

 mineral wealth. The gold output for the past year was valued at $150.- 

 000,000, which is nearly twice that of the United States and represents 

 one-third part of the total production of the whole world. Moreover, a 

 short distance from Pretoria is the Premier Diamond mine, where the 

 famous Cullinan Diamond was recently found. Besides gold and dia- 

 monds the Transvaal possesses large deposits of coal, tin, copper and 

 many other metals. But great as our mineral resources, they are small 

 in comparison to the agricultural potentialities of this wonderful state. 



Crop Variety. 



"The Transvaal varies in altitude from 1,500 to over 7,000 feet above 

 sea level, and in these different agricultural zones it is possible to grow 

 cereals of all sorts, sorghums and fodder crops, tropical and temperate 

 fruits, tobacco, cotton and coffee, fibre plants and bananas; and at the same 

 time, to raise cattle and sheep, horses, ostriches and angora goats. It 

 will, therefore, be seen that the Transvaal is eminently a land for the 

 agriculturist and stock farmer, with a range of climate and culture equal 

 to, if not surpassing, either California or Florida. 



Agricultural Possibilities. 



"These brief notes will suffice to show that this colony has a great 

 agricultural future and I am glad to say that our farmers are co-oper- 

 ating in a splendid manner with the Department of Agriculture — under 



Irrigation. 



the able direction of Mr. F. B. Smith — to develop our great naural re- 

 sources in a sound and scientific manner. For many years past it has 

 been urged — and justly so — that the great need of South Africa is irriga- 

 tion. So much, however, has this point been pressed that until quite 

 recently the vast possibilities of our dry lands have been entirely ignored. 



