SOUTHERN AFRICA. 285 
five of which make a pound currency, which, being paper mo- 
ney, was generally 20 per cent, under a pound fterling. The 
bakers of the Cape were required to take out a licence annually, 
and their number was limited ; fo that, by the regulations of the 
police, which, in this refpe£t, were excellent, the inhabitants 
had always bread at a reafonable price. 
Barley is a productive grain at the Cape of Good Hope. IF 
the rains happen to fall early, in the month of April for inftance, 
there is no foil, however impoveriflied by a continual fucceffion 
of crops, none, however fliallow and poor, that will not yield 
a tolerable crop of barley ; or, to fpeak more correctly, of heer 
cr big ; for the only trial of flat-eared barley I ever faw in the 
colony, was at the Governor's feat of Rondc-bofch, and it did not 
feem to promife much fuccefs. The former is juft as good as 
the latter at this place y for the Cape boor, having always plenty 
of animal food> would difdain to eat bread mixed with barley- 
meal. The only ufe that is made of it is to feed their horfes. 
For this parpofe a great part of that which is grown in the 
vicinity of the Cape is cut down when green, juft as the ear 
begins to ihoot ; the dry barley and the chaff is brought from 
the oppofite fide of the iflhmus. The number of horfes kept by 
the Engiifh, and the fuperior manner in which they w-ere fed, 
encouraged the cultivation of barley to the prejudice of that of 
wheat. At the capture of the colony, the market price of bar- 
ley was If rix dollar the muld, but General Sir James Craig, 
feeing the neceffity of keeping up a certain number of cavalry 
as part of the garrifon, and knowing that this grain would ne- 
ceffarUy rife in confequence of it, made a voluntary offer of 2|. 
ris. 
