DROUGHT IN RHODESIA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16836, 27 December 1928, Page 11

DROUGHT IN RHODESIA

CATTLE DYING FROM STARVATION * BULAWAYO, Oct. 27. If rain does not fall soon and generally in Southern Rhodesia the cattle industry will be faced with a serious crisis. This is the opinion ofi a number of important lartners, whoso losses in recent weeks have been very serious indeed. The cattie are dying by the hundreds. Many cattle are almost too poor in condition to rise to their feet. One farmer has lost nearly 200 beasts during the last month or so, and this threatens to be far from the maximum of his losses. \ A regrettable sign of the true position can be obtained from the fact that many cattle owners are 'bringing skins into town—hides of animals which have died of starvation. The arid dryness of the veld is reflected in the beasts themselves, ralves dying at birth through tack of mill*, and cows dying from sheer weakness. “When the cow lies down,” one fanner remarked, “she is quite often utterly incapable of ever rising again, and she dies where she is.” Some parts of the country are in a far more parlous condition than others. Wankie, for instance, is now getting loads of cattle from Bulawayo each week instead of every month as in the past. In the Gwaai area, however, two inches of rain have fallen, and the veld is excellent, but from Bulawayo to West Nicholson the cattle are in a terrible condition. The country from Bulawayo to Owelo is like a desert, there being not a blade of grass to be seen for miles.