70 
Supplemmt to the "Tropical Agriculturist." [July 1, 1901. 
culture. Grood tobacco is largely grown iu the 
Transvaal for export to other districts of South 
Africa. Maize, Kafir corn and other tropical or 
semi-tropical crops are grown in summer when 
rains are abundant. 
In some parts, as near Pretoria, maize, the 
most extensively cultivated crop of all, only grows 
well on river banks, in the alluvial soil found 
there. European cereals suffer from rust and 
from hailstorms during the summer or wet season, 
and probably only one crop in five years could be 
•ecured. Oats are not so much injured as wheat. 
j4. variety known as the Sidouian oat, brought 
from Australia by way of Natal, is not affected by 
rust and is grown during summer. Planted in 
December and January, it is ripe in April and 
May. The Boer oat grows in suitable soils or 
where irrigation is possible during the dry season 
of winter. 
Potatoes grow freely, and lucerne does remark- 
ably well, and when planted in alluvial soil that 
can be irrigated during the dry weather, after 
frosts hove disappeared, it can be cut as many as 
eight times in one year. Turnips and swedes, 
which sufl'er from the attacks of fungi, especially 
in a very dry season, do not always prosper, but 
mangels do better. Frosts are liable to do con- 
siderable damage, especially in the low-lying areas. 
The high-veld plateau, healthy for cattle and 
sheep in summer, is too cold in winter when the 
grass is dry and hard, and the animals are moved 
off in May to the lower and warmer country, 
where sweet grass and shelter are both more 
abundant iu the '■ Bankenveld," or terrace country 
to the eastern side of the Drakensberg range on 
the Natal and Swaziland borders, or to the north 
of the Magaiiesberg mountains, to return in 
September after rain falls. The dry and withered 
grass on immense areas of the high-weld is burnt 
off during September, chiefly with the object of 
destroying ticks which swarm in countless myriads 
on cattle from laud which has escaped burning. 
The ticks are then so numerous that the cattle 
cannot thrive, and moreover are liable to suffer 
from red-water or Texas fever. The periodical 
burning is of recent introduction, since ticks were 
brought into the country by " transport riders " 
(cattle-waggon carriers) from Natal, and the prac- 
tice has so much injured the pastures that fewer 
cattle can now be kept than formerly on a given 
area, and the quality has also gone back in 
consequence. 
Horses are bred on the high-veld, especially to 
the south-east, but they do not excee 1 more than 
two to five per cent, of the live stock. In Bausto- 
land, the greatest horse-breeding centre of South 
Africa, they number from ten to twenty-five per 
cent, of the live stock. On the low ground of all 
the Colonies and other dependencies, and in the 
valleys even at considerable elevations, horses aud 
also mules are subject especially during summer 
(February being tlie worst month) to uncertain 
and intermittent outbreaks of the deadly horse- 
sickness, a disease peculiar to South Africa- It is 
contracted by them at night when they are ex- 
posed iu the open air. They take into their circu- 
latory systems the germs of a filamentous fungus, 
(Edema mycoiis, of the form of a beer bairel, 
which are carried by thin streaks of mist rising 
from the veld when climatic conditions are suit- 
able for their propagation. About eight or nine 
days after sucii an exposure, or after eadng grass 
from which the moisture deposited by the mist 
had not been dried up by the sun, very few affect- 
ed animals escape death by suffocation induced by 
serum escaping into the air passages from the 
affected lung structure. 
The Transvaal is now outside the area which 
is recognised to be affected by " tsetse fly," 
though at one time the river valleys, especially 
to the north and north-east, were included in 
it. The pest has disappeared from the whole of 
South Africa south of the lower area of the valley 
of the Limpopo and a comparatively narrow 
belt of coast country surrounding Delagoa Bay 
aud terminating in the south at St. Lucia Bay. 
The wholesale destruction of the large wild 
game, more especially the South African buffalo, 
has conferred this solitary advantage upon the 
country as a solatium for the injury which has 
thereby resulted. 
A good deal of a mild type of malarial fever 
exists, especially in summer in the low and 
humid p'lrts, but it is not confined to these areas. 
It was present at Pretoria when the waterworks 
were formed, on the surface of the hard dry land 
above the city being broken. 
The country is well provided with springs of 
good water. 
The Orange Eiver Colony occupies the impor- 
tant area of high-veld lying to the south of the 
Transvaal. In the eastern part of the Colony the 
Drakensberg and subordinate ranges of mountains 
occur. The great breadth of the country is a 
rolling, grassy plain, with a general trend to the 
west aud north-west. Like the Transvaal, it at 
one time grew coarse grass, and supported im- 
mense herds of antelopes and other species of 
wild game, very few of which remain. But now 
finer and sweeter grasses prevail, and the country 
is stocked chiefly with cattle and a few horses, 
and in certain places with sheep. From the 
higher and more exposed parts stock require to 
be removed to lower and more sheltered and 
more succulent pastures during winter. In what 
is known as the " Conquered Territory," to the 
south-east of the centre of the Colony, is the chief 
agricultural district, about 100 miles in length 
and 30 miles in breath. The soil is rich and 
capable of growing good crops of cereals of all 
kinds, including wheat, without being manured 
or irrigated. It may be looked upon as a continua- 
tion of Basutoland — the granary of South Africa. 
Wheat produces SO up to 80 fold even on land 
which has grown grain crops successively for a 
number of years. F irms usually range in extent 
from 1,000 to 3,000 acres, and the value of the, 
land with buildings upon it is about £1 per acre 
Considerable numbers of both sheep and cattte of 
mproved types are bred in the district. 
ABOUT MANGOES, 
( Concluded.) 
Mr. Knight certainly deserves the sincerest 
thanks of all mango growers for making knowo 
