Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/164

160 and, in many cases, fertilization of the soil, are generally necessary for obtaining a moderate crop; cattle must be protected from the parasites and diseases which carry them off wholesale; the planters must make many experiments to find suitable trees and then discover a market for his fruits; gold digging can only be made to pay by companies with large financial resources employing the most modern scientific methods for the extraction of the metal; and the trader is handicapped by the cost of transportation and the small demand for his goods. These are some of the problems which the colonist asks his visitors with their store of knowledge to help him to solve: he needs every device which science can furnish to enable him to exist. Further, his land has been

lately rent by civil war, and two white races with totally 'different ideals must live side by side working together for the common good: the black races, far outnumbering the settlers, present problems at least as difficult as those we have to deal with in the United States. He asks too for help in building up schemes of education for both black and white, and these schemes must include primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities for the study of the humanities and pure science, and, what is perhaps more important than all for the prosperity of the colonies at the present moment, institutions where elementary and advanced technical education in all its branches can be obtained. If any help is forthcoming towards the solution of these questions, South Africa will feel well repaid for her hospitality and will consider that the visit of the British Association to her shores has not been in vain.