FRUIT CULTURE AT THE CAPE. 



131 



years ag) a large number of Apricot trees in scattered orchards — I should 

 think about thirty or forty th ousand — and the fruit had such little value that 

 it was used to feed pigs ; there was no other outlet for it. One of the 

 causes of improvement was the getting the Dutch farmer to recognise 

 there was something in the grading of the fruit and in the Calif ornian 

 system of drying the Apricots entirely in the sun. 



Now to go back a little. As I have told you in 1892 I had the 

 planting of a small orchard for Mr. Rhodes on the side of Table Mountain. 

 From that time up to 1896 I was in close touch with Mr. Rhodes in the 

 matter of fruit-growing. He was a man who took the keenest interest 

 in colonial developments, and particularly in that of the soil, and 

 living as I did with the Dutch and having a knowledge of my business 

 he was always pleased to give me an opportunity of talking over matters 

 with him. In 1895 he assisted me to purchase a farm. After the 

 Jameson Raid he was away for some months settling up the Matabele 

 War, and on his return to Cape Colony he received a great ovation 

 throughout the country from both the Dutch and the English. This is 

 rather a personal matter, but I think I may be excused for relating it. 

 On Mr. Rhodes' arrival in Wellington, which, as I have already mentioned, 

 was the principal fruit district, he was met by a large deputation of 

 farmers, the majority of whom were Dutch, and was taken out to this 

 drying company, which had been established by Mr. Cillie, to look at the 

 drying of Apricots which was going on. I met him up there, and he was 

 very much interested in the whole procedure, and to Dk some time asking 

 all sorts of questions. On leaving he asked me if I had the same 

 confidence in the possibilities of fruit-growing at the Cape as I had 

 always held, On my replying " Yes " he asked me to come down to Cape 

 Town to see him at an early date. I went, and he said, " Look here, you 

 have always believed in this fruit business. You have a farm in 

 Drakenstein Valley. I want to buy the whole valley ; how much would it 

 cost?" As it is twenty miles long by ten miles wide, and contains a 

 number of farms and a small village, you will understand that the order was 

 a big one, and I did not know how to take it. I said, however, that I thought 

 it might be bought for a quarter of a million. He simply replied, " Then 

 go and buy it." That is the way that the Rhodes fruit farms were started. 

 I do not mean to say that we bought up the whole of the Drakenstein 

 Valley, because I found that much of the land was unsuitable, but it was 

 the means to the end. 



None of you may know, what everybody knows in that part of Africa, 

 that when certain politicians found out that somebody was purchasing land 

 in the south-western provinces on a large scale they immediately did their 

 utmost to prevent it changing hands. However, fortunately, we were 

 able to get possession of som3 of the best farms — thirty-three in all — which 

 cost about £125,000, and these we still hold. The planting of these farms 

 was not a cut-and-dried thing by any means. There was a great deal to 

 be taken on trust, and experiments had to be made. On one farm, for 

 instance, I had determined to plant 15,000 Pear trees. A man who had 

 been on the farm for forty-five years came over and I consulted him. He 

 told me that the trees would not grow without water. I had to explain 

 to him that fruit could be grown without irrigation by up-to-date 



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