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VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
Then donkeys die of bad keep, and in certain parts of the country 
there is the Tetse fly. When I left there my young brother had 14 
donkeys in work, he has written since to say that they are all dead but 
three. 
Then with mules and horses there is that fearful curse of horse sick¬ 
ness, which extends right down into the north of Natal. From 70 to 80 
per cent, of animals afflicted with the horse sickness die. Those that 
get over it, are termed salted (perhaps connected with being ‘ Savour ’ 
—to buy). If a man in Matabeleland wants to buy a horse, he is not 
captious as to soundness, nor does he care for age ; what he wants to 
know is if it is salted : in which case he will give £70 or £80 for it, 
rather than pay £15 for a young sound unsalted animal. 
I understand that if horses and mules have proper shed accommodation, 
if they are fed in the morning before they go out, and if they are not 
allowed to graze until the grass is dry, then they are less liable to the 
sickness : also that mares and foals, that are properly looked after in the 
winter, and not left half-starving on the veldt, are much less liable. 
February to May are the worst months. 
It is rather remarkable to consider that in South Africa, where animals 
suffer in so many and terrible ways, there seems to be a scarcity of 
veterinary surgeons. I should think there is a great opening for them 
there. 
The best mules in the country appear to be bred by a Spanish Jack out 
Cape mares. In Buluwayo I bought four mules for the purpose of 
going out to the Matoppos, and paid £25 a piece for them. I sold them 
again for the same money. That was just before the horse sickness 
came on. 
The coach contractor, Zeederberg, told me that he had tried some 
interesting experiments in zebra crossings with donkeys, in the hope of 
getting something that would not suffer from horse sickness. He said 
he could not obtain satisfactory results because the hybrid is too lazy ; 
it cost him more for paying men to flog up the beasts to get work out 
of them than it cost him to use mules ! This also requires ‘ salting.’ 
The Cape horse is certainly much wanting in bone, and small, and 
except in the neighbourhood of the Transvaal one hardly sees a good 
stamp of horse in South Africa. At Johannesburg, owing to the racing 
there, a very much better class of horse is being imported. 
I might digress again for a moment to point out that it is possible 
that artillery may be employed in South Africa at no distant date ; 
the question of remounts for the artillery may then come before us, and 
we might find it expedient to use the horse of the country. 
When one considers these small horses, and the fact that scarcely a 
horse in that country ever wears a collar, reflections which, although 
rather remote from Africa, are intimately connected with our own 
particular service, are forced upon one. Consider the enormous weight 
we put on our draught horses here. 
Certainly few Cape horses could carry it. I suppose it is realised by 
everybody that a set of harness in drill order, not marching order, 
weighs over six stone, and of that the collar averages about sixteen to 
nineteen pounds. I think that discussion on that point might lead to 
results in the future, as there are so many considerations in favour of 
doing as the French and our own colonials have done, abolishing the 
collar. The new pole harness, where the breeching is easily adaptable 
as breast harness, favors the idea. 
