Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/246

 bushels in 1904, oats, barley, rye, mealies (Indian corn) and Kaffir corn (a kind of millet). The principal wheat-growing districts are in the south-western and eastern provinces. The yield per acre is fully up to the average of the world’s yield, computed at twelve bushels to the acre. The quality of Cape wheat is stated to be unsurpassed. Rye gives its name to the Roggeveld, and is chiefly grown there and in the lower hills of Namaqualand. Mealies (extensively used as food for cattle and horses) are very largely grown by the coloured population and Kaffir corn almost exclusively so. Oats are grown over a wider area than any other crop, and next to mealies are the heaviest crop grown. They are often cut whilst still tender, dried and used as forage being known as oat hay (67,742,000 bundles of about 5 ℔ each were produced in 1904). The principal vegetables cultivated are potatoes, onions, mangold and beet, beans and peas. Farms in tillage are comparatively small, whilst those devoted to the rearing of sheep are very large, ranging from 3000 acres to 15,000 acres and more. For the most part the graziers own the farms they occupy.

The rearing of sheep and other live-stock is one of the chief occupations followed. At the census of 1904 over 8,465,000 woolled and 3,353,000 other sheep were enumerated. There were 2,775,000 angora and 4,386,000 other goats, some 2,000,000 cattle, 250,000 horses and 100,000 asses. These figures showed in most cases a large decrease compared with those obtained in 1891, the cause being largely the ravages of rinderpest. Lucerne and clover are extensively grown for fodder. Ostrich farms are maintained in the Karroo and in other parts of the country, young birds having been first enclosed in 1857. A farm of 6000 acres supports about 300 ostriches. The number of domesticated ostriches in 1904 was 357,000, showing an increase of over 200,000 since 1891. There are large mule-breeding establishments on the veld.

Viticulture plays an important part in the life of the colony. It is doubtful whether or not a species of vine is indigenous to the Cape. The first Dutch settlers planted small vineyards, while the cuttings of French vines introduced by the Huguenots about 1688 have given rise to an extensive culture in the south-western districts of the colony. The grapes are among the finest in the world, whilst the fruit is produced in almost unrivalled abundance. It is computed that over 600 gallons of wine are produced from 1000 vines. The vines number about 80,000,000, and the annual output of wine is about 6,000,000 gallons, besides 1,500,000 gallons of brandy. The Cape wines are chiefly those known as Hermitage, Muscadel, Pontac, Stein and Hanepoot. The high reputation which they had in the first half of the 19th century was afterwards lost to a large extent. Owing to greater care on the part of growers, and the introduction of French-American resistant stocks to replace vines attacked by the phylloxera, the wines in the early years of the 20th century again acquired a limited sale in England. By far the greater part of the vintage has been, however, always consumed in the colony. The chief wine-producing districts are those of the Paarl, Worcester, Robertson, Malmesbury, Stellenbosch and the Cape, all in the south-western regions. Beyond the colony proper there are promising vine stocks in the Gordonia division of Bechuanaland and in the Umtata district of Tembuland.

Fruit culture has become an important industry with the facilities afforded by rapid steamers for the sale of produce in Europe. The trees whose fruit reaches the greatest perfection and yield the largest harvest are the apricot, peach, orange and apple. Large quantities of table grapes are also grown. Many millions of each of the fruits named are produced annually. The pear, lemon, plum, fig and other trees likewise flourish. Cherry trees are scarce. The cultivation of the olive was begun in the western provinces, c. 1900. In the Oudtshoorn, Stockenstroom, Uniondale, Piquetberg and other districts tobacco is grown. The output for 1904 was 5,309,000 ℔.

Flour-milling is an industry second only in importance to that of diamond mining (see below). The chief milling centres are Port Elizabeth and the Cape district. In 1904 the output of the mills was valued at over £2,200,000, more than 7,000,000 bushels of wheat being ground.

Forestry is a growing industry. Most of the forests are crown property and are under the care of conservators. Fisheries were little developed before 1897 when government experiments were begun, which proved that large quantities of fish were easily procurable by trawling. Large quantities of soles are obtained from a trawling ground near Cape Agulhas. The collection of guano from the islands near Walfish Bay is under government control.

Mining.—The mineral wealth of the country is very great. The most valuable of the minerals is the diamond, found in Griqualand West and also at Hopetown, and other districts along the Orange river. The diamond-mining industry is almost entirely under the control of the De Beers Mining Company. From the De Beers mines at Kimberley have come larger numbers of diamonds than from all the other diamond mines of the world combined. Basing the calculation on the figures for the ten years 1896–1905, the average annual production is slightly over two and a half million carats, of the average annual value of £4,250,000, the average price per carat being £1 : 13 : 3. From the other districts alluvial diamonds are obtained of the average annual value of £250,000–£400,000. They are finer stones than the Kimberley diamonds, having an average value of £3 :2 : 7 per carat.

Next in importance among mineral products are coal and copper. The collieries are in the Stormberg district and are of considerable extent. The Indwe mines are the most productive. The colonial output increased from 23,000 tons in 1891 to 188,000 tons in 1904. The copper mines are in Namaqualand, an average of 50,000 to 70,000 tons of ore being mined yearly. Copper was the first metal worked by white men in the colony, operations beginning in 1852.

Gold is obtained from mines on the Madibi Reserve, near Mafeking—the outcrop extending about 30 m.—and, in small quantities, from mines in the Knysna district. In the Cape and Paarl districts are valuable stone and granite quarries. Asbestos is mined near Prieska, in which neighbourhood there are also nitrate beds. Salt is produced in several districts, there being large pans in the Prieska, Hopetown and Uitenhage divisions. Tin is obtained from Kuils river, near Cape Town. Many other minerals exist but are not put to industrial purposes.

Trade.—The colony has not only a large trade in its own commodities, but owes much of its commerce to the transit of goods to and from the Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Rhodesia. The staple exports are diamonds, gold (from the Witwatersrand mines), wool, copper ore, ostrich feathers, mohair, hides and skins. The export of wool, over 23,000,000 ℔ in 1860, had doubled by 1871, and was over 63,473,000 ℔ in 1905 when the export was valued at £1,887,459. In the same year (1905) 471,024 ℔ of ostrich feathers were exported valued at £1,081,187. The chief imports are textiles, food stuffs, wines and whisky, timber, hardware and machinery. The value of the total imports rose from £13,612,405 in 1895 to £33,761,831 in 1903, but dropped to £20,000,913 in 1905. The exports in 1895 were valued at £16,798,137 and rose to £23,247,258 in 1899. The dislocation of trade caused by the war with the Boer Republics brought down the exports in 1900 to £7,646,682 (in which year the value of the gold exported was only £336,795). They rose to £10,000,000 and £16,000,000 in 1901 and 1902 respectively, and in 1905 had reached £33,812,210. (This figure included raw gold valued at £20,731,159.) About 75% of the imports come from the United Kingdom or British colonies, and nearly the whole of the exports go to the United Kingdom. The tonnage of ships entered and cleared at colonial ports rose from 10,175,903 in 1895 to 22,518,286 in 1905. In that year ths of the tonnage was British. It is interesting to compare the figures already given with those of earlier days, as they illustrate the growth of the colony over a longer period. In 1836 the total trade of the country was under £1,000,000, in 1860 it had risen to over £4,500,000, in 1874 it exceeded £10,500,000. It remained at about this