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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER,  March  6,  1902.  - 
would  support  him  at  home  in  comfort.  N  e  will  quote 
from  the  report :  “  Mealies,  Kaffir  Com,  and  other  native 
cereals  ^row  in  the  rainy  season  without  irrigation,  as  do 
Sweet  Potatoes,  Pumpkins,  &c.”  Mealies  realise  about  23s. 
per  bag.  Potatoes  3d.  to  8d.  per  lb.,  other  cereals  have  been 
tried  experimentally,  and  give  fair  prospects  of  success. 
Wheat  grows  well  under  irrigation  or  on  damp  ground  ;  Oat 
forage  ditto.  Grass  very  good  ;  almost  every  farm  has  the 
advantage  of  possessing  various  kinds  of  grass.  The  grass 
dries  up  oh  the  high  lands  towards  the  middle  of  May,  is 
burnt  end  of  June  and  during  July,  and  sprouts  up  again 
about  middle  of  August.  There  is  always  plenty  of  grass 
in  the  valleys.  The  first  rains  fall  during  October,  and  are 
usually  succeeded  by  a  month  or  six  weeks  of  fine  weather. 
Rains  and  dry  weather  alternate  till  the  end  of  March  or 
April.  Only  on  low  land  is  there  ever  any  frost — say  2deg. 
Snow  never  falls. 
It  is  of  no  use  to  grow  crops  and  raise  cattle  unless  there 
is  a  market  within  easy  access,  and  the  market  seems  to 
depend  much  on  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  country. 
Mineral  wealth  acts  as  a  magnet,  and  then  comes  the  genus 
‘'homo,”  and  he  must  be  fed.  He  works  hard  and  does  not 
grudge  money  for  good  food  supplies.  The  farmer  and  the 
miner  must  go  hand  in  hand.  With  farming,  proper  market 
gardening  must  go  ;  and  r^^ally  the  farming  proper  is  of  such 
a  nature  as  at  first  to  puzzle  any  ordinary  Englishman. 
Forage  plants  app»"ar  to  answer  ;  in  fact,  where  do  they  not  ? 
And  we  read  with  satisfaction  of  our  old  friend  Lucerne, 
which  does  well ;  we  fancy  in  a  favourable  season  it  will 
surprise  a  good  many  folks.  It  likes  heat,  and  it  is  such  a 
"cut  and  come  again”  crop.  For  our  part  we  should  back 
it  against  Oat  forage.  The  Oat  must  have  a  cool,  moist 
Atmosphere.  There  are  two  native  forage  plants  mentioned 
as  being  excellent  growers — Teo  sinte,  which  requites  a  deep 
rich  loam,  such  as  is  found  in  the  valleys,  and  makes 
-capital  hay  or  ensilage  ;  the  other  is  Manna,  a  small  grained 
Millet.  Now,  we  think  it  a  better  policy  to  improve  these 
native  plants  than  to  try  experiments  with  other  crops  not 
indigenous  to  the  soil.  Indian  Com  has  been  grown  with 
great  success,  and  better  qualities  have  been  introduced 
from  America.  “  Mealie  ”  is  the  African  name  for  the  Corn 
cobs. 
We  suppose  the  term  “wet  land”  is  relative.  We  read 
of  Wheat  doing  well  on  wet  land  and  on  irrigated  land. 
Now,  our  experience  of  Wheat  is  that  dry  land  suits  it  best — 
that  is,  dry  deep  land.  Potatoes,  too,  flourish,  and  Messrs. 
Sutton  are  represented  by  Early  Rose.  Then  we  come  to 
two  classes  of  plants  which  we  are  only  acquainted  with 
in  their  manufactured  form — viz.,  Tobacco  and  Rubber. 
The  Tobacco  seed  has  to  be  imported  ;  the  Rubber  vine  is 
-'there  in  plenty.  We  read  of  fruit  of  almost  every  kind.  If, 
as  we  read,  the  wild  Grape  is  well  flavoured  and  good  there 
appears  to  be  room  and  opportunity,  by  means  of  judicious 
selection  and  cultivation,  to  improve  it  much.  We  complain 
of  insect  pests  here  at  home  ;  but  we  shall  not  get  rid  of 
them  by  emigrating  to  Rhodesia.  They  are  of  a  different 
kind,  but  equally  bad  to  combat. 
As  to  stock.  At  present  there  is  not  enough  of  it.  The 
horned  cattle  have  been  decimated  by  rinderpest ;  but 
most  happily  a  cure,  or,  rather,  a  preventive,  has  been 
found,  and  any  future  outbreaks  will  be  got  under  without 
much  loss  or  expense.  There  is  an  opening  for  good  stock. 
It  seems  to  us  there  is  now  a  golden  opportunity  for  the 
imnortation  of  some  established  breeds,  such  as  Short¬ 
horns,  Devons,  or  Herefords.  With  all  the  good  grass  they 
must  do  well,  and  thev  woidd  prepare  the  way  for  sheep. 
Sheep  do  best  on  a  close  cropped  pasture,  where  there  is 
no  chance  of  surfeit.  The  native  goats  and  sheep  do  well, 
and  might  form  the  nucleus  of  grand  flocks.  There  being 
tracks  of  country  suitable  for  winter  and  summer  grazine, 
•  the  maintaining  of  large  flocks  and  herds  need  entail  no 
•  anxiety  on  the  breeder. 
Now,  as  to  horses.  Can  this  country  be  made  available 
for  horse-breeding  on  a  large  scale?  Say,  for  Army 
remounts.  The  country  is  right  enough  ;  but,  alas  !  there 
is  a  deadly  sickness,  which  at  present  defies  all  means  of 
remedy.  It  appears  to  be  a  malarial  disease,  and  can  in  a 
measure  be  prevented  by  attention  to  certain  rules.  Experi- 
ments  are  being  made  with  the  view  of  discovering  some 
means  by  which  horses  may  be  rendered  immune,  and  we 
have  no  doubt  that  science  will  accomplish  much. 
“Glanders”  has  been  practically  brought  under  control  by 
•the  application  of  the  Mallein  test.  There  is  a  great  ado 
here  when  a  case  of  Pleuro  is  discovered ;  but  we  absolutely 
know  nothing  of  its  virulence.  There  is  only  one  cure,  and 
that  is  stamping  out.  Stamp  out  the  first,  and  then  inocu¬ 
lation  to  prevent  attacks  in  the  frrture. 
Dairy  farming  appears  to  offer  a  fine  field  for  an  enter¬ 
prising  man,  butter  near  the  towns  and  mining  districts 
easily  making  up  to  4s.  per  lb.,  and  a  pint  of  milk  from  4d. 
to  Is.  The  bulk  of  the  butter  and  milk  consumed  qn  the 
country  comes  from  Cape  Colony,  Australia  and  other  over¬ 
sea  countries.  Then  poultry.  With  eggs  at  5s.  to  30s.  per 
doz.,  and  table  fowls  from  6s.  to  12s.  6d.  each,  what  visions 
of  gold  are  raised.  Fowl  cholera  is  here,  as  in  other 
countries,  a  fatal  scourge.  We  believe  ourselves  that  fowl 
cholera  has  one  origin — dirt.  It  may  be  dirt  in  the  water, 
that  is,  actual  dirt,  the  wat>-r  gets  unwholesome  through  long 
standing  in  the  sun.  The  native  breeds  are  the  most 
susceptible ;  the  imported  fowls  generally  escape.  This 
points  to  weakened  constitutions  through  much  in-breeding. 
Geese,  and  ducks  appear  proof  against  attacks.  Cream 
separators  and  other  dairy  machinery,  with  incubators,  are 
in  use.  We  wonder  whether  some  of  our  trained  dairy 
maids  might  not  be  found  of  great  value !  At  any  rate,  they 
train  the  young  colonists  in  ways  of  cleanliness  and  good 
management. 
The  veterinary  arrangements  appear  to  us  to  be.  first 
class.  In  fact,  it  is  a  case  of  prevention  as  well  as  cure. 
There  is  so  much  danger  of  outbreaks  of  epidemics  arising 
among  Nature’s  stock  that  it  behoves  the  Government  to 
take  all  possible  measures  to  stamp  out  at  once  any  signs 
of  disease  at  the  first  onset.  Scab  exists  to  a  large  extent 
among  the  native  sheep  and  goats,  and  the  Government 
provide  gratis  MacDougall’s  dip  for  those  who  can  be 
persuaded  to  use  it. 
To  sum  up,  we  think  there  is  a  great  future  before 
Rhodesia.  There  will  be  drawbacks  as  there  are  every¬ 
where.  There  is  watei’,  that  is  the  first  great  fact ;  but  to 
get  the  best  result  that  water  must  by  artificial  means 
be  brought  in  contact  wuth  the  land.  The  markets  are 
getting  nearer  every  dav.  and  as  for  the  climate,  there  is 
much  to  be  said  in  its  favour.  Perhaps  the  men  who  are 
most  needed  as  colonists  are  that  class  here  known  as 
yeomen,  or  working  farmers.  They  must  be  prepared  to 
leave  many  comforts  behind  them,  and  they  must  also  be 
prepared  to  take  up  the  cultivation  of  many  things  hitherto 
strange  and  unknown. 
Work  on  tlie  Home  Farm. 
The  thaw  continues,  but  until  yesterday,  when  we -were 
favoured  with  a  beautiful  gentle  rain,  the  frost  gave  way  very 
slowly.  A  little  ice  in  sheltered  ditches  is  now  the  only  sign  of 
the  recent  visitation  of  winter. 
Ploughs  are  at  work  on  every  hand,  chiefly  on  fallows,  either 
crossing  or  turning  back  the  furrows.  A  fairly  good  breadth  of 
Turnip  land  is  ready  for  turning  over,  but  the  surface  is  a  little 
too  wet  yet.  We  can  do  with  some  March  winds  now,  and  more 
sunshine  than  we  have  had  lately.  The  Barley^  sowing  season  is 
here,  and  we  are  ready  for  it,  but  the  land  is  not.  It  must  be 
both  drier  and  warmer  before  we  shall  pass  it  as  a  seedbed  for 
Barley.  Some  farmers  are  preparing  for  the  drill  by  giving  their 
land  a  good  chisel-harrowing.  This  opens  the  soil  and  encourages 
it  to  dry,  but  should  more  rain  soon  follow  the  work  may  have  to 
be  done  over  again.  Perhaps  they  intend  to  drill  Oats,  which 
might  be  put  in  sooner  than  Barley,  for  they  hardly  need  so  fine 
a  tilth.  We  think  that  the  tendency  is  more  in  favour  of  Barley 
than  Oats  this  season.  Neither  crop  did  well  last  season,  but 
Barley  was  much  less  of  a  failure  than  Oats,  which  in  so  many 
cases  were  almost  worthless,  there  onlj^  being  apologies  for  both 
corn  and  straw. 
A  new  Barley  is  being  very  much  boomed  just  now,  its  name 
bein<j  Wrench’s  Prolific.  We  have  seen  it  growing,  and  did  not 
notice  anything  very  striking  about  it  except  that  there  appeared 
a  little  similarity  to  Goldthorpe.  It  is,  however,  Avell  spoken 
of  for  its  yield,  and  farmers  are  preparing  to  sow  it  freely.  We 
would  prefer  a  stock  of  Major  Hallett’s  Chevalier  direct  from 
liim  last  year,  and  grown  on  land  which  would  be  a  change  to 
ours. 
There  is  fair  luck  amongst  ewes,  but  not  a  heavy  fall  of  lambs. 
We  are  glad  to  see  that  the  Argentine  authorities  have  removed 
the  embargo  against  the  importation  of  British  stock.  This  will 
be  good  news  to  Shorthorn  breeders  everywhere,  but  still  more  so 
to  breeders  of  Lincoln  sheep,  who  have  been  passing  through  a 
serious  crisis  owing  to  the  restrictions  recently  in  force. 
As  we  expected.  Swedes  look  very  queer  now  the  frost  has 
gone.  There  seems  to  be  no  life  in  them,  and  a  large  proportion 
are  dead  and  will  soon  be  rotten.  They  will  hardly  be  worth 
cutting,  and  the  sheep  must  run  over  them  and  cut,  or  rather 
suck,  for  themselves. 
