While I am resting at a sheep farm I may as well give the reader some of the history and statistics of wool-growing in the colony; but for this purpose I will mend my pen and begin a fresh chapter. CHAPTER VI. Energy of the English Colonists. - Rapid progress of Wool-growing. — Town-bred Farmers.-Profits of Sheep-farming.-Going "on_tick."-Cape Philosophy.Agriculture. Its Disappointments and Enemies. Rust and Locusts.-Cattle.Butter. A deserted Master.- Pleasant Situation.-Horse-breeding.-Characteristics of Cape Horses.-Their "Sickness."-Suggestions for Improvement of the Breed.—A solitary ride.-A Reverie interrupted.—An unenviable “ Fix.” THE Dutch are not a "go-ahead" people, though they are frugal, industrious, and sensible. From this circumstance, though they laboured away most pertinaciously at growing bad wine, they never thought of testing the capabilities of the Cape Colony to grow something more profitable and of better quality. It was reserved for the English settlers to do this, and they hit on the right article when they selected sheep for their experiments. The experience of Australia aided them in their estimates; and the Cape, from being, almost down to 1830, a mere wine-growing and hide-and-tallow-exporting colony, is now one of our first wool-growing possessions. Lieutenant Daniell, R.N., may be said to be the father of South African sheep-farming. The progress which has been made since he started it, in 1827 or 1828, may be appreciated from this fact that, in 1830, the whole eastern province of the colony exported only 4,500 pounds of wool, at the value of £222. In 1842 (twelve years later), the same province exported above 1,000,000 pounds, at the value of upwards of £34,000. Sheep-farming, therefore, became "the rage," and not unreasonably. It is the best and safest investment of time, capital, and labour that an emigrant to the colony can make. From what I said of a sheep-farmer's life in the last chapter, it will be guessed that no great knowledge or ability is required to manage a sheep-farm. But this is not altogether so. Every immigrant should pay a six-months' visit to other people's farms before he starts one of his own, so that he may acquire a knowledge of the habits and wants of the stock, the art of shearing, and the value of the different kinds of sheep. Two young gentlemen once immigrated to the colony with a little money. They hired a farm as soon as they arrived, and purchased six hundred sheep, as breeding stock. Alas! they discovered, when too late, that the sheep were "wethers!" They were Cockneys, who would act on their own judgment alone. Now it is generally observed, that Cockneys make the best farmers in the colony, because, coming without any previous knowledge of the art they intend to follow, they take advice of those whose experience enables them give to it, instead of trying to manage things in South Africa as they do in England. Of course they occasionally make comical blunders; as in the case of one very sharp fellow, who, thinking to give his brother farmer the "go-by," planted split pease, in order to raise a crop of them all ready for use. Such little botanical errors, however, are not common. To give an idea of the profits of sheep-farming, properly carried on, I will select one or two examples. Messrs. S. purchased a flock of 400 Merino ewes, for £400, and a farm of adequate size for £450. Their balance sheet for two years' farming stood as follows: The next example is that of a firm in which my old friend Mr. Chase, whose Christmas dinner I have mentioned with grateful remembrance, is a partner; and to him I am indebted for all my "statistics" on Cape affairs. A better authority could not be found. The following balance sheet is for seven years, and includes, as the reader will see, every kind of incidental expense. £ s. d. £ s. d. 259 17 6 84 15 3 1157 11 9 157 10 0 1809 0 0 1838. Ditto ditto, 10 Saxon 1839. Ditto ditto, 7 Saxon ewes and 3 rams. Stock purchased, 692 ewes and rams 1835. Passage-money for two German shepherds, their families and dogs. 1831-39. Wages, clothing and provisions Sheds, shepherds' houses, &c. Interest at 6 per cent, on original cost of three farms, in extent 14,500 acres, £942 Two wagons and oxen Quit-rent and taxes on stock 235 14 452 2 8 200 0 114 O £4945 6 9 * The regular legal interest of the colony. VOL. XXX. EE These two examples (very ordinary ones) show that sheep-farming is a tolerably certain investment, yielding from 20 to 25 per cent. on capital judiciously employed. Such being the case, I was rather surprised to find a kind of "panic" prevailing among the sheep-farmers, and several of them being constantly "sold up." I inquired of my friend what it could all mean. "Que voulez vous?" was his reply. "These men have begun without capital. As soon as they arrive in the colony they hire a farm; buy stock on credit for two or three years; live on the sale of the wool and the increase, and also on credit (for such fellows live like fightingcocks); and then, when at last pay-day arrives, they pathetically exclaim that they are ruined; they abuse farming, and the colony, and everything and everybody but themselves, because they have not got what they never have had-the money to pay for their purchases. The only wonder is, how they carry on the war so long without going into the Gazette. Look at P. He has a capital house, a first-rate flock, keeps four horses in the stable, besides plenty at grass, gives good dinners and good wines (we'll dine there to-morrow), and yet, I'll swear, the fellow never had a sixpence, and his sheep are not paid for yet, though he has been five years in the colony." "Then he will soon be in the Gazette." "Doubtless; but his estate will still pay a fair dividend. He will be voted unfortunate;' and, happen what may, he cannot be worse off than when he started; while in the meantime he has had his five years' fun, and can say with the Giaour, "And come what may, I have been bless'd.'" "Is this the usual Cape farmer's philosophy ?" I inquired deferentially. "Heaven forefend!" cried my companion. "But unluckily there are dozens of such men, and they do the colony vast mischief." Agriculture is not a safe pursuit at the Cape, when carried on exclu sively. Cape wheat is the finest in the world; so say the sages of Mark Lane. Oats thrive admirably. Barley is little cultivated. Indian corn is grown everywhere. So are Kafir corn, and most of the vegetables common to England. But after all, the profits are very precarious, as Nature has sent several enemies of vegetation to South Africa. First comes the formidable "rust," or smut, which will sometimes attack the crops in one district, for several years in succession, and destroy all the grain grown in it; and then take its departure for three or four years. Messrs. P. and K. were two active, enterprising young fellows, with little capital, but plenty of energy and industry. They did not "fancy" sheep-farming, because it was too slow and lazy a life, and was carried on in the least picturesque parts of the colony. They determined to turn to agriculture. They hired a farm in the beautiful district of Oliphant's Hoek (Anglice, Elephant's Corner), and, with ploughs and oxen, set manfully to work, to till the earth, and live by the sweat of their brows. A magnificent crop in due time rose from the ground, and sweet were the reveries of the friends as they mentally reaped it, and stored it, and sold it, and counted the "dollars." Alas there is a faint suspicion of "rust" visible on a few ears; it grows daily more palpable; it spreads through the whole length and breadth of their fair fields; the magnificent crop is ruined-worthless! It was a disheartening result; but the friends were brave fellows, and not likely to cry "die" at the first blow. They set to work again, and next year brought them precisely the same result. They then purchased a stock of cattle, horses, and a few sheep, and only cultivated a very small portion of their land. Since that time they have prospered, as such good fellows deserve, and are, I trust, by this time among the most wealthy, as they were always among the most popular and hospitable, of the eastern province farmers. Another enemy of the agriculturist is the locust. But I shall have to describe my own experience of this little "plague of Egypt," so that I will not trouble the reader with his misdeeds in this place. Cattle are profitable stock, and thrive everywhere throughout the colony. But Englishmen generally seem to have little fancy for them. Most of the large cattle-farmers are Dutchmen. Their profits arise principally from the sale of butter, which is made in a very primitive sort of churn, the whole of the milk (and not the cream only) being used. I cannot say that the production is by any means equal to the best English butter; but it is not bad. The price of cattle sounds ridiculous to English ears :-Thirty-five to fifty shillings for cows and draught oxen; sixty to seventy shillings for fat slaughter oxen. The uncertainty of the supply of labour at the Cape is perhaps one cause of an Englishman's comparative prejudice against cattle. It is by no means an unusual thing for every servant on your farm to walk off the day after receiving their month's wages; and you find yourself "Like the last rose of summer left blooming alone, Your sooty' companions all 'mizzled' and gone;" by no means a pleasant predicament, if you have a few thousand sheep of your own. But imagine the disaster with four or five hundred cows that must be milked! We all know that, when an English housewife feels herself compelled to give warning to Betty the cook for impertinence, Mary the housemaid often steps up and says, "then she shall go too;" whereupon Jeames the footman declares that he shall go likewise. Very similar is the case with your Hottentot servants, though far more disastrous in its results. Besides which, they never give you even an hour's warning; they veritably" stand not upon the order of their going, but go." Some fine morning you, the farmer, wake up, and sing out for some shavingwater, if you are such a luxurious dog as to shave at all. There is no answer. You imprecate sotto voce. You slip on a few indispensable articles of costume and sally forth. Everything looks remarkably quiet. Not a creature is to be seen. You go to the huts surrounding your mansion and find them all empty; you call every man's and every woman's name upon the place, till your lungs are tired. Not a sound in reply, save echo and the bleating of your sheep, the lowing of your cattle, and the simultaneous yelping and barking of your sixty curs. You use very shocking language. Then, if you are a philosopher-as the wilderness soon teaches you to be you go into the house, boil your own kettle, and make your own coffee. Afterwards you saddle your nag and ride over to the nearest farm and borrow a few "helps," as the Yankees term them, to tend your flocks and herds, till you get fresh people of your own. And what is the meaning of all this? asks the innocent English reader. Are you a bad master? Did you quarrel with any of your people? Did you neglect to pay their wages? or to serve them good rations? Have they any cause to be annoyed or angry with you? None whatever, my good sir. It is simply that they love change, and some of them, perhaps, intend to take a month, or two months' holiday, and get drunk for the whole of that period on the wages they have just received from you. So far from having any cause to dislike you, or any reason to abuse you, they will probably swear you are the best master in the world, and send their friends and relations, who may be in want of situations, to you to supply their own places. Meantime, such a "turn-out" seldom fails to cause you a heavy loss, in addition to all the nuisances of having to be your own cook, groom, valet, housemaid, and perhaps herd, for some indefinite period. Horse-breeding is carried on to a great extent in the Cape colony, especially in some districts near Cape Town. The export trade in horses to the Mauritius, to India, and even to Australia, is very considerable. They are profitable stock, though of course the returns are slow, and on that account more capital is required to embark in this branch of farming than any other. And here I must tell the reader a little about Cape horses. Generally speaking, a regular Cape horse (one whose pedigree cannot be traced to any imported stallion) is an ugly brute. He is about fourteen hands high, and his chief characteristics are, a low, narrow shoulder, an ewe-neck, and a goose-rump. His "pins" are generally pretty good. He is villanously broken; his mouth is as tough as an oak; his pace is a shuffling, tripping, wriggling abomination, between an amble and a canter, with a suspicion of a "run" in it. Put him beyond this pace and he gallops as awkwardly as a cow. As for walking, he is innocent of the pace beyond three miles an hour. Trotting, neither he |