Nov. 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL Aa?tlCtJLTXjRIST, 321 
SOLDIER SETTLERS IN SOUTH AFRICAt 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE (LONDON) " TIMES."' 
Sir, — My experience relates exclusively to tiie 
Transvaal, and is nob obtained from any hearsay 
or c?i passant information, but is the result of a 
13 years' residence as farmer and landowner. 
The first consideration on the subject of soldier 
settlers is— What parts of the country offer the 
best prospects, and what is the present price ? Mr, 
Dicey, in the FortnightUh states that " there are 
millions of acres of land throughout the veldt 
which could be had almost for a song." I know 
of no part, going round the southern to the 
western districts "from Standerton to Zeerust, 
where a farm of 10,000 or 12,000 acres could be 
bougiit for less than £4,000 even any of those 
where the natural supply of water is limited to 
the irrigation of ten or 12 acres of land. A 
relative of Ooni Paul has a farm near Stander- 
ton, suitable for horse-breeding, for which he 
refused an offer of £10,000. A farm in the 
Waterberg or Zoutpansberg districts could no 
doubt be bought at a much lower figure. Fourteen 
years ago there was a public sale by auction in 
Pretoria of a number of farms in those districts, 
the reserve price being £60, but not one of ihem 
was sold. No Boer would think of buying a farm 
in those unhealthy districts to reside there ; they 
are also too far from Johannesburg, which is the 
only market in the Transvaal. I cannot endorse 
Colonel Stopford's opinion in the Niaeteenth 
Century magazine that £500 would be sufficient 
to stock a farm for cattle breeding, as a means 
of livelihood for soldiers settlers. Thirteen years 
ago I bought good cows for £-1 or £5, o.xen for 
£7 or £6, but since the rinderpest thoy are 
(jifkcult to get ab three times the amount, and 
it would take three years before any income 
could be derived from the capital invested. The 
Rustenburg district, which is justly called the 
Garden of the Transvaal, is the most suitable part 
for soldier settlers ; it is near the market, and 
anything will grow there from a potato to a 
banana. My own case offers the best argument 
in the matter. I was utterly unacquainted wibh 
farming when I bought my property, consisting 
of about ten acres of irrigable land, having one 
day's water per week ; the dwelling-house was 
separated from the land about 200 yards, and 
there was no water, no garden, not even a tree 
near it. I made a large dam and a water farrow, 
600 yards long from the brook above (about eight 
or ten days' labour). I planted in the early autumn 
aboht 300 fruit trees — viz , orange, lemon, peach, 
apricot, apple, pear, plum, cherry, and hg. The 
peach and apricot trees were three years old and 
bore fruit the ne.xt season, to the great surprise 
of my neighbom s the Boers, who told me it was 
the wrong time of the year to plant and they 
would all die. Not less surprised were they ab 
njy success in goat and pig breeding. Their goats 
were continually sick, and they lost hundreds in 
two years. I commenced with 17 and in three 
years' time I had 60, besides those I -sold and 
killed. They would not believe me when 
I told them' that during the rainy season they 
should provide sheltered kraals for them. How- 
ever, when they found that my goats increased, 
they followed my example, and there is much 
less mortality amongst them now. It was the 
same with horses. I never lost one in ten years. 
I did not mention that the purchase of the tea 
ficres of waterland, which is called an e?;/, jnclud^pi 
the right of cutting wood for home consumption i 
and grazing for cattle over the whole farm of ' 
8,000 acres ; in fact, the whole farm is the joint 
property often owners, and we can, if mutu.ally 
acreed, sell any portion of it, whicli we did last 
year, measuring out ten erfen, some of which 
were sold for £150. 
There is suitable land enough for five times the 
present agricultural population ; it is simply a 
question of v/ater, and as soon as the war is over 
cue of the first considerations engaging the atten- 
tion of the Government should be the construction 
of dams, without which the contemplated soldier 
settlements will be a complete failure. No Boer, 
would object to pay for the water ; it would , 
increase the value of his property at least 50 per ' 
cent., and the money invested by the Government 
would brins; in good returns. I think the Govern- : 
ment will encounter fewer difficulties in obtaining 
land than in providing settlers with the neces- 
sery number of oxen for ploughing and transport 
purposes, unless the oxen and mules now used for 
war purpose were instead of being sold, appor- 
tioned to the settlers. 
There is little doubt that if roads are made, 
new markets created, and money spent on its 
development the Transvaal will offer a widely 
different future — an almost boundless field for 
the employment of industrial and agricultural 
immigrants ; and to any man with a large family 
and a capital utterly disproportionate to the 
position in life to which they were born and in. 
which he hopes to place them I confidently say 
— Go to the Transvaal, to its wider fields, its' 
freedom from p<'etence and expense, its sunshine 
and pure, exhilarating air. There is not a happier 
being in the whole world than a Boer with his 
ten acres of waterland, a span of oxen, and a 
wagon ; his only trouble is when his neighbour's, 
pigs get into his garden and he has to shoot them.' 
Steenbofifontein, Zwaartruggens. G, S. ciV. 
. i.tUttilj 
TOMATOES AND COLD ASHES 
Coal ashes are generally conceded to be deficient 
of mannrial constituents — at least of ammonia. Ac." 
cording to " Johnson's Gardeners' Dictionary," how- 
ever, coal ashes contain carbon, silica, alnmin 
sulphate of lime, iron and potash, carbonate of lime, 
and oxide of iron, and are said to be a good manure 
for grass, Peas aud Potatoes. Thus the assimilation o 
some if not all of these constituents is likewise bene- 
ficial to the Tomato, and probably in a marked 
degree. The relation of a case in point may gg far 
to prove this. It was experienced by my brother 
when resident at Rhode Island, New York. Having 
no further use for a brick built pit, used for plung- 
ing half-hardy plants in pots in during the winter 
it occurred to him to add more furnace ashes to the 
pit, and plant Tomatoes therein. A shovelful of fresh 
cow manure was the only additional stimulant added 
merely placing it beneath each plant, returnino- tha 
ashes to each hole, and then placing a plant on tha 
spot, and when the plants became fully established 
the hose was freely applied during the summer re- 
sulting in a heavy crop of fruit of fine size and 
quality ; some of the plants extended to eighteen 
feet in length, year after year in the self same aahea, 
much to the astonishment of the neighbouring 
gardeners. Moreover, the "spot" or "sleepy" disease 
never made its appearance. I mast state that tha 
long deep pit was filled up the depth of five feet 
within eighteen inches from the top, thus leaving 
space of wintering bedding stock and a single To- 
mato plant was allotted to each sash space. Whilst, 
of course, the sashes were not reqqjje^ iq^ tfag ajpmpij 
