FARMING IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12906, 20 February 1906, Page 6

FARMING IN THE TRANSVAAL.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.

A member of our staff had an interesting talk on Saturday with Mr J. J. Melton, who has ha5P some experience as a New Zealander farming in the Transvaal, about the conditions of the industry there. It appearsrfrom what Mr Melton, said, tbat there is little or nothing in the practice of farming in Transvaal on all fours with the practice here, the conditions being so vastly different, but there is much in his account of the work that will be found interesting. Mr Melton, we may state, went to South Africa as a member of the Sixth Contingent; and had his share of active service with the New Zealanders. After returning to the-colony and getting his discharge he went; back to South Africa, and for a time was engaged in a business of which nothing.has been heard. He acted for several trips as supercargo of a steamer conveying oxen from north-eastern ports of Madagascar in Delagoa Bay, for the Imperial military, transport service. A contract for the supply and delivery of 12,000 of these cattle had to be carried ou£. These Malagasy- bullocks are peculiar to the country, having a hump over the shoulder, against which the yoke presses when at ■work. They are light and active animals, and goodtrekkers. One regiment of the Malagasy army is mounted on oxen, •which axe either naturally or artificially- hornless. The Malagasy are clever cattlemen, and I^Sf" 5 ° f t* l6 ™- are experts with the lassoo. Ihe Hovas ruling a? ass 'are the cattle owners and dealeis, nud some of. them are reputed to be worth thousands. They are wise in their generation, and refuse to allow cows to be exported, with a view to preserving the demand for steers. Those 15,000 steers were fmrdly handed over to the Repatriation. .jje.m-lmeut, and were distributed among- ibe lic*is, to help them to a fresh start in ]if t; .

After 'this experience Mi- Melton was appointed manage; of a farm of 1200 acres, belonging to the numidpalitf of Pretoria, ■on which was -rvo-.vn the feed for four to «ve hundred malt-s explored in the municipal services. All ih s ploughing and iieavy haulage was ' done bv oxen; the «tftivation, sowing, and other light work, *y mules.

- ' The principalhorse and mule feed so:u in the city markets of Pretoria and Joare " forage," "mealies," and " green feed." ".Forage " is oats cut '* oa the green, side" of ripeness, so that the corn will not "shake out, bundled in small sheaves and dried; and sold at r,o much per 10Q: bundles. Lately there has bean .some movement in the direction of selling forage by weight.; The principal 'food for. mules is cracked or crushed mealies—inai'ze. This is sold in sacks of 2001bs. The municipal- farm- was equipped with all sorts of modern farm machinery, and the forage was chaffed for the mules. Maize is% prolific yielder, 151bs of seed-per acre yielding up to six sacks of corn (12001bs). and an average yield is four sacks per acre. The price of nni?e has varied a good deal. At the cl : ? of the war it •vas 25s per sack, now it is only, Bs, au-d at this price it is not profitable," as maize needs so much cultivation to keep down weeds. The "fat-hen" which is so com-i nion ifi Wev Zga]apd is the common weed ■jn the maize fields ,6t Transvaal, and it grows: large afiu strong theVe- : -s'c3U?times sis or'seven. feet-high. There ""is some' Galifornian thistle too, and a native weed called•■" widows"—bccr.use its seeds are black and stick to . everything—is very troublesome. It. is because the mealies require a lot of weeding that the Kaffir, wants a number of wives, and is willing to work until he earns enough to get.them. Four wives is .the recognised standard of a competence. > With four wives to nlar.t and weed his crop of mealies; the Kaffir retires...from the-field of industry, and bea native gentleman, who 'spends his time in smoking and drinking native beer, and.- keeping, his -wife' slaves industrious. "Green feed" is either oats, Gape barley, or lucerne,- chiefly barley, grown in the winter, witli the aid of irrigation. The advantage of this method of growing it is that the summer risks of rust, hail and locusts are avoided. This feed is largely used for stabled aninuus in July ur.d August. Locusts are a great, scourge in some years, making a clean sweep of greea crops; and the Transvaal summer hailstorms are terrific—lumps of ice that thresh things to pieces, and have been known 10 kill full-grown pigs. The native grasses are of several kinds. The best of them is very like ryegrass, but with a finer blade, "it grows 2* to 3ft high, and is called rooi-kop—red-top—-by the Dutch, from its red seed head. At the other end of the scale is a coarse thatching grass, 9ft or 10ft long in damp situations. The native grasses feed cattle very we'l in summer, and native horses get fat on them, but sheep and new?y-imported horses do not. Imported horses do not do well for a couple of years, and many are lost through eating poisonous plants in new-chum ignorance of their -nature. The veldt in spring is like a garden—so per cent.-better than most gardens—wife wild flowers. One may see acres of arum liles; there are dozens of .different kinds of lilies; and if the veldt has been burned at a certainj season the first plant to grow up is a poisonous one, a sort of tulip, that acts very much like the New Zealand tutu. Perhaps it is their ignorance of the poisonous plants that causes so many losses of imported animals. ' Glanders and farcy-are well established ailments among horses. Glanders has been so prevalent that special attention has been paid to it, by serum-testing and preventive treatment.The commoner sheep in South Africa are' a very mongrel lot. The Dutch had a sheep with the Persian cross. The big tails everyone has .heard of is said to come from the Persian bastard. They' grow very little wool and make very poor meat. The best mutton in South Africa is New Zealand frozen, even, if it is only the secondclass mutton that goes over there. In Carolina district, Eastern Transvaal, Mr Melton, met New Zealanders who have introduced the merino, and it seems to be doing fairly well in that high region, while feed lasts. The Dutch used to have' two farms, one on the high veldt for summer and one on the low for winter, and this system, must be followed by others, as there is no feed on the high country in winter, and in the summer the low country is too hot and sickly. The sheep are very scabby, and the Dutch will not take the trouble to " dip " them. The British settlers do so, but the country will never be got clean so long as many sheep owners do not. A fatal disease, sometimes very common, is called "blue-tongue," because both sheep and cattle dying with it have blue tongues. Some say/it is caused by cold weather; others that it is something in the feed, as it appears with the first growth of grass if the veldt is burned: in January. The notorious "horse sickness" that caused so much anxiety and loss during the war, has been traced to infection by a mosquito. It has two forms, one causing a swelling of the head, the other attacks the lungs. A horse that has had and ( recovered from this disease, is said to be "salted" and. is believed to be immune from further attacks, and therefore is worth more in the market. Mr Melton doubts the immunity, and if this is not secured the "salted" horse is not worth so much as another, .as he never recovers wholly, the disease leaving him sluggish and spiritless for life. Cattle suffer a great deal from the " Rhodesia-tick fever," and strong measures of quarantining and spraying have had to be adopted to get the pest under control. The tick was all round Pretoria, the district was declared infected, and cattle were prohibited from being moved from place to place, without a permit, and theto only after spraying with paraffin. Bv taking precautions suited to the habits of the tick, the herd on the Pretoria muni-

cipal farm escaped infection.- This tick is m animal quite visible to the naked eye. and when gorged with blood it swells to the size of a pea. There is not much chance of South Africa ever becoming a great wheat - growing country. Locusts, hail, and drought are against it, except in certain districts where special conditions of climate are found. The north-east of Orange Calouy is one of these. The "Sixth" destroyed six or seven threshing, plants iu that quarter, so there must be a lot of wheat grown there. The Dutch on the high veldt grow a. little for home use, and have it ground at the village mill. . There is something to be done with sheep and horse breeding, if one gets on high, cool country, with plenty of moisture. The Eastern Transvaal, about Belfast, is perhaps the best district for these conditions. "Grain growing will .never pay," says Mr Melton. " There is too much to contend against, and my advice to New Zealanders who think of going there to earnon mixed farming is: "Don't!*" There is something to be done in the stock line by men with large capital. And within limits there is room for poultry and milk f«yms around the large cities. Poultry. eggs and milk are very dear at Joliarnesburg and Pretoria. The difficulty about dairy farms is the shortness of the season of green feed, and that might be got over by the use of the silo. Mr Melton stated that lie made silage on the Pretoria city farm, with great success, from green maize. He cut it when the corn was fully formed, but was yet milky: put it through a chaffcutter and into a concrete silo at once. and it made excellent silage. The dairy cows kept, on the farm did not care for it at first, but soon took to it and became fond of it. He had three silos, and kept one of them ful". for twelve months as an experiment, and at the end of the year the silage was' as good or better than thatused earlier. The milk of the cows, while they were being fed on the silage" ar.d veldt hay. was tested by the Government bacteriologist, and he found it much richer in butter fat than any milk he had ever before tested. No one detected or fancied that there was any flavour given to the milk or the butter by feeding the silage to the cows, and as maize grows so freely in the season, it invites the cow-keeper to provide feed for the whole year round by making it into silage. Another food grown (or dairy cows is pumpkins, which grow freely, and are greedily eaten! The Kaffirs are very fond of them too. Thev arc often grown between the rows of maize. and left to ripen after the maize is harvested. New Zealand butter is in request, and one Pretoria merchant has his shipments made up in wrappers printed: " Packed in New Zealand speciailv for John Jack, Pretoria." That is from a North Island factory. Some Australian butt?-£ i; sent oyer in tins. The Dutch system of farming is primitive, but effective. The Dutch landholder persuades a few native families to settle on his land, gives them the use of a few acres, helps them to build their huts, and lends them teams for so many days to plough their ground. In return. * men, women and children must work so inat>y weeks or months for him, just when lib wants them, without pay. The Dutch had most of the Kaffirs settled on these terms, but now there are many families "squatted" on Crown lands, who are their own masters, so long as they pav the hut tax, of £3 a year, and there are complaints of a shortage of. labour for farm work. One remedy proposed is to increase the hut tax on the squatters on Crown lands nnd reduce it on those settled on farms. This settlement system allows of a certain social safeguard being s?t\red. A male Kaffir is nut allowed to kv.v.' his home without a " p:tss -" from ls:s e-.splover. on pain of being locked up as a w.irsiiit. The employees of the municipal faun'could cot even stroll into town on a Sndnv without a pass from the manager. Mr Melton did not see very much of the mines, but he went down Cone of them, and of course he heard a great deal about them, because the Transvaal lives by the mines. The country is full of scattered prospectors, and a great many of the ostensible fanners are living chiefly upon miv.i:::: capital, a rental paid them bv prospecting companies to secure the "opVion** of <hc purchase of their farms should profitable mines be discovered upon them. As to the Chinese question. Mr Melton confesses that he has no very certain opinion, but he inclines to think that the mine-owners could have got plenty of native labour if they had offered -a little more money for it; but they have got the Chinese cheapsr than the native. The Chinese are much better fed and housed than the native labourers used to be. and they have hospitals provided for them, and every care is taken of them.

South Africa is very beautiful in its- senson, and if one -wants delightful scenerv he could not take a finer holiday trip than to go across to Durban, run through Xatal to Johannesburg, and back to the coastby the Delagoa Bay line. But if possible the trip should include Rhodesia and a .visit- to Victoria Falls, anil a run down to Capetown J" though the -dismal Karrr.o country has to be passed through on thai run. There is a' great deal to see, ;.nd cine should have time to halt at mr':y points. Johannesburg is a city worth seaing, a wonderful' creation of a few years, with Yankee sky-scrapers and all the :i:o----dern conveniences. September and October are the months for seeing the coir-try at its best, though it is warm then. It is often distressingly warm in summer, but in early winter the climate of the hill country is beautiful, with just enough frost to whiten the ground in the mornings, and the sky is clear all day. Towards ihe end of winter terrific winds blow, and the dust they raise is a great annoyance. Then follow the tropical rains, short sharp falls of a few hours, when the water conies down "in bucketsful." and then ceases. There is no such thing as a continuous drizzle for a day or two or three days. The rainy season is from September *to February, including these months. - Durban has now a very excellent port, into which the largest steamers of the Union Castle line can enter, instead of having to be tendered in the roadstead as they used to be. The port now seems to be very quiet, compared with what it was during the war. Then it : was :OOt a»t all unusual to see a lot. of- steamers berthed in the harbour,-, and-len/Ja dozen, or sixteen more at anchor in:, the bay. Now one sees six or seven inside and none: lying outside. The ports of Dnrban and Delagoa Bay, .tie seaports of: the Transvaal, will always be of great importance while the mining industry flourishes, for nearly everything the miners require has to be imported. Even the wood for house building is imported, mostly from the Baltic. There is what is called the " bush veldt," but the bush is only big scrub. And there is little doubt that the mines will flourish for a long time, for prospectors are out in all directions and new finds are frequently made. The Transvaal is above all things a- mineral country. There 5s a great deal of coal at different points, quite near the surface. Some of it rather resembles Kaitangata coal, and some is of harder quality. A new diamond field has just been reported, and there is no saying what are the limits of mining expansion in *8 Transvaal. *

Our readers will perceive from the foregoing that, our young townsman made good use of his opportunities for observation ro;d reflection, and Tits account of both may be of some use to his contemporaries.