SOUTHERN AFRICA. 313 
take out a licence annually, and their number was limited ; 
so that, by the regulations of the police which, in this re- 
spect, were excellent, the inhabitants had always bread at a 
reasonable price. 
Barley is a productive grain at the Cape of Good Hope. 
If the rains happen to fall eariy, in the month of April for 
instance, there is no soil, however impoverished by a con- 
tinual succession of crops, none, however shallow and poor, 
that will not yield a tolerable crop of barley ; or, to speak 
more correctly, of beer or big ; for the only trial of flat-eared 
barley I ever saw in the colony, was at the Governor's seat of 
Rojide-bosch, and it did not seem to promise much success. 
The former is just ^s good as the latter at this place ; for the 
Cape boor, having always plenty of animal food, would dis- 
dain to eat bread mixed with barley-meal. The only use that 
is made of it is to feed their horses. For this purpose a great 
part of that v/hich is grown in the vicinity of the Cape is cut 
down when green, just as the ear begins to shoot ; the dry 
barley and the chatf is brought from the opposite side of the 
isthmus. The number of horses kept by the English, and the 
superior manner in which they were fed, encouraged the cul- 
tivation of barley to -the prejudice of that of wheat. At the 
capture of the colony, the market price of barley was 1| rix- 
dollar the muid, but General Sir James Craig, seeing the ne- 
cessity of keeping up a certain number of cavalry as part of 
the garrison, and knowing that this grain would necessarily 
rise in consequence of it, made a voluntary offer of 21 rix- 
<lollars the muid, in order to secure a certain portion from 
VOL. II. s s 
