Chap. V. 
THE BOERS AS FARMERS. 
103 
must have its fountain; and where no such supply of water exists, 
the government lands are unsaleable. An acre in England is 
thus generally more valuable than a square mile in Africa. But 
the country is prosperous and capable of great improvement. 
The industry of the Boers augurs well for the future formation 
of dams and tanks, and for the greater fruitfulness that would 
certainly follow. 
As cattle and sheep farmers the colonists are very successful. 
Larger and larger quantities of wool are produced annually, and 
the value of colonial farms increases year by year. But the 
system requires tha,t with the uicrease of the population there 
should be an extension of territory. Wide as the country is, and 
thinly inhabited, the farmers feel it to be too hmited, and they 
are gradually spreading to the north. This movement proves 
prejudicial to the country behind, for labour, wliich would be 
directed to the improvement of the colony, is withdrawn and 
expended in a mode of life little adapted to the exercise of in¬ 
dustrial habits. That, however, does not much concern the rest of 
mankind. Nor does it seem much of an evil for men who culti¬ 
vate the soil to claim a right to appropriate lands for tillage which 
other men only hunt over, provided some compensation for the 
loss of sustenance be awarded. The origiual idea of a title seems 
to have been that subduing ” or cultivating gave that right. But 
tliis rather Chartist principle must be received with hmitations; 
for its recognition in England would lead to the seizure of all our 
broad ancestral acres by those who are willing to cultivate them. 
And, in the case under consideration, the encroachments lead at 
once to less land being put under the plough than is subjected to 
the native hoe, for it is a fact that the Basutos and Zulus, or 
Caffres of Natal, cultivate largely, and undersell our farmers 
wherever they have a fan field and no favour. 
Before we came to the Orange river we saw the last portion 
of a migration of springbucks {Grazella euchore^ or tsepe). They 
come from the great Kalahari Desert, and, when first seen after 
crossing the colonial boundary, are said often to exceed forty 
thousand in number. I cannot give an estimate of their 
numbers, for they appear spread over a vast expanse of country, 
and make a quivering motion as they feed and move and toss 
their graceful horns. They feed chiefly on grass; and as they 
