HFARMING IN TNE TRANSVAAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1315, 13 May 1897, Page 4

HFARMING IN TNE TRANSVAAL.

Writing from Krugersdorp, Transvaal, to the London Field , a Mr Blackburn says :—I am frequently in receipt of inquiries from agricultural friends in England as to the prospects that await farmers and other growers desirous of trying their luck in South Africa—by which wide description Englishmen generally mean the Transvaal. By way of answering these and prospective correspondents, I have collated the following facts which, although neceessarily scanty, may be relied upon as accurate as far as they go. These particulars only relate to the Transvaal, where the conditions are very different to these which obtain in Cape Colony and Natal. From what I have been able to learn, I should advise extreme caution before deciding to enter into competition with the old

stagers in the two latter countries. ( But I think I am safe in saying that, given certain qualifications to be hereafter enumerated, there are more reasons why the right men should try their luck within say fifty or sixty miles of Johannesburg than can be urged against it. The first essential to successful farming is a market, and Johannesburg and the contiguous mining area provides that. We have here a white population of some 80,000, including halfcastes who have advanced beyond the mealie pap stage of existence, and that population is growing at the enormous rate of 500 per week. At the present time the Rand is absolutely the dearest spot on earth, and the prices obtained by the growers of food stuffs are phenomenal. Forage, for instance, consisting of green barley, is fetching to day an average of 45s per 100 bundles, six bundles being an average feed for a horse. Potatoes average 24s per bag (1001 b.) ; mealie meal, 37s per bag (1201 b); onions, 12s bag; stable bedding (coarse veld grass), 6s 6d 100 bundles; chaff, 18a per bale; eggs, 2s 6d to 3s 6d per doz ; cabbage, 2a each (I have seen three of ordinary size sold for 15s) ; carrots, 3d a buuch of six, and other garden produce at proportionate rates. Broadly speaking, the supply of green food is far below the demand, and one of the greatest surprises to the newcomer is the scarcity of vegetables.

Ihe Johannesburg market is supplied mainly by small growers, who cultivate plots from 10 to 50 acres within 20 miles of the Rand, and a few Boer farmers of the more progressive type bring in from long distances their superfluous stuff grown for family use. The insignificant quantity which a Boer will think it worth while bringing ito market from long distances strikes the new comer as ludicrous.

At the present moment there is outsjianned opposite my office an oxwagon from Rustenburg, two days’ journey, en route for Johannesburg market. The contents are twelve fowls that will probably fetch 3s a piece ; four dozen eggs, worth say 10s ; fifty bunches of carrots, a little larger than walnuts, and worth at present 3d a bunch ; and a dozen cabbages, at say 9d each. This represents the surplus produce of a 6000 acre farm in the

rich Rustenburg district for one week, aDd is a fair average. On the other hand, Mr Brink, who owns the farm Vlakfontein on which the battle misnamed Doonkop was fought, and distant from Johannesburg about twenty miles, has some 50 acres of potatoes worth at a fair computation £SO per acre. He is one of the most progressive Boer farmers in the Transvaal, ana has reaped the reward of his enlightened ideas by making a large fortune in less than eight years, and that simply by growing potatoes, onions, cabbages, and forage. Whatever enterprise and capital have ,been put into market gardening within a reasonable radius of the Rand, the results have been highly profitable, and there is every prospect of the demand increasing largely for years to come. There are very good reasons to

explain why this profitable field has not been better exploited. In the first place the new comer with capital is almost invariably impressed with the one idea, namely, to turn the capital over quickly on the share market or in land, and quit the country as soon as possible. It is useless going to a man with a thousand pounds, and show him that he can by growing potatoes, secure at laast an income of £6OO a year. The fact that it will require his practically settling down in the country is the drawback. Jle has read and known of men with that amount of cash turning it into ten thousand in a few months by buying claims or stands and the prospects of rapidly accumulating wealth requires a lot of backbone to resist. Consequently those who have had the courage to embark in vegetable growing, have had the satisfaction of seeing a profitable and growing business established, while your speculator has to take his chance against the competition of some cf the keenest financial schemers in the world. Whatever the state of the share market people must have food, and the man who supplies it has an inexhaustible market.

In the ordinary course, an Englishman with a knowledge of market gardening is more than a match for the Boer farmer. The latter is ignorant, bigoted, and prejudiced against any departure from old methods, The following story is absolutely true,

and admirably illustrates the spirit animating the bulk of them : A Rustenburg Boer got double the price he expected for thirty bags of potatoes, A friend pointed out that next year he would be able to plant double the quantity. “ No,” was the reply ; I shall only have to plant half the amount, as I have done so well this season.” The Boer has no idea of farming beyond a farm sufficiently large to supply grazing for his oxen. A farm consists of 3000 morgen, rather more than 6000 acres. It is unfenced, except a small plot near the house, where barely sufficient vegetables are grown for the use of the family. The cattle run loose all day, and are kraaled at night, or, as often as not, left out in the veld for weeks at a time. Ask him why he does not put more ground under the plough, and he proceeds to urge excuses—locusts, drought, cost of labour, expense of transport, and, greatest argument of all, his father was content to go on in the same way; why not he 1 His farming is of the most primitive and happy-go-lucky character. He puts in the seed, and leaves nature to do the rest. The blind fatalism of tho Mahommedan has its absolute counterpart in the case of the Boer. He regards any attempt at assisting nature as an impious interference with Providence, and hoaccepts disaster with philosophical indifference. One big farmer near hero seriously informed me that he did not believe water could be pumped up hill, and, it it could, then, from a religious point of view, ho did not think it right. As a result ho has loft a magnificent stretch of cultivatablo land lying idle, because it. is on higher ground than the water course 50ft below. 1 have not seen a force pump on one Boer farm out of twenty, but 1 have seen thousands of acres that might be profitably cultivated left for gracing simply because tho owner was too idlo or ignorant to carry tho water over it. I am satisfied that this drought scaro is absurdly overrated. Water can be found almost every where by digging, and a pump and windmill will cheaply overcome any difficulty on this score. I would not advise a newcomer to engage in growing mealies (maize) at first, though it is one of the most profitable of crops. There is ft lot to

learn in connection with it, which only a year or two in the country can teach. Forage growing is very profitable at all times, but there is nothing to beat market gardening properly done. Of the cost of production I cannot speak with authority, for the very good reason that those who are making a good thing of it are naturally not eager to invite competition. I only know that I have seen men with very limited capital blossom into substantial farmers in an amazingly short time. Take potatoes, for example. The cost of producing an acre is roughly £6, and the returns about ,£SO. The average yield is twelve to sixteen bags from one bag of seed, and twenty bags is not uncommon. Mealies yield enormously, and always pay to grow. Suitable land has to be looked for, and its value varies very greatly, depending largely upon the nature of the water supply. For example, a 200 acre plot having a watercourse through it was let for £l5O a year. Equally good land adjacent, but off the watercourse, is on offer at £3O per annum for 200 acres. I am in favour of a newcomer devoting himself at first to one or two special lines, say roots and forage. The cost of labour is not high, Kaffirs can be had for about£3 per month, and, better still, Coolies for less. An energetic man with £IOOO who knows his business, and who comes out with the intention of making money nuher than of enjoying himself, is bound to get on ; but Lo must have no fads, bo content to learn from the Boers, and wait. He Ims this bed rock fact to encourage him: Wherever vegetable growing has been conducted thoroughly it has paid handsomely, lie has a growing and unlimited market, and, for some time to come, competition will bo practically nonexistent. Let the would-be imigrant como out ami see for himself, avoid agents and advisers at home, and keep his own counsel.. If he have any grit in him ho cannot well fail.

The Cape Government admit that Professor Koch’s oure for rinderpest has failed. There is nothing more annoying, or likely to lead to more confusion, than indistinca addresses. Farmers should note that it : : more business-like, and that it saves time to have their names and addresses printed on their memo forms and envelopes. They can get five hundred forms printed with envelope* to match at the Mail office for 12a 6d,