Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/184

1S8 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. and in certain well-watered districts, where " fancy prices " prevail. On an average the market value of good lands ranges from ten to thirty shillings an acre, while for the same money over half a square mile may be had in poor and arid districts. Already the greater part of the colonial arable lands have found purchasers. Nevertheless there still e.xist vast unclaimed wooded tracts and other lands of which the Crown has taken possession, and which after being officially surveyed are put up for sale. The buyer is required to pay yearly the twentieth part of the purchase money, unless he prefers to redeem the charge by a single payment. In the eastern districts old grazing grounds of the Kafirs, and other extensive domains confiscated from the enemy, have been j)arcelled out into lots for the most part of small size, varying from 320 to about 000 acres. These lots are sold only to such purchasers as are not ulreudy owners of estates exceeding 500 acres. An attempt has in this way been niade to introduce a system of small holdings, and in this region the land is really divided into a relatively large number of estates. Here English, German, Hottentot, and Kafir squatters live side by side as peaceful tillers of the land, whereas farther west, and especially in the pastoral districts, the system of large landed properties prevails almost everywhere. The purchasers have secured on an average about four times as much as had been ceded to them by the Government, and even in the vicinity ot the Cape domains of 2,500 acres and upwards are by no means rare. Thus South Africa, like the mother ( ountry, has already developed a territorial aristocracy. Although cereals give a very fair return on the outlay in capital and labour, the colony is still obliged to import corn and flour to the yearly amount of from £280,000 to £600,000. Wheat is grown chiefly in the neighbourhood of the- eastern and western capitals, Cape Town and Graham's Town, and in the north- eastern districts near Kafirland and the Orange Free State. Maize and millet are the prevailing crops in the eastern parts bordering on the Kafir territory ; but here, as well as in the rest of the colony, all the alimentary plants of the Euro- pean temperate zone thrive well. Tobacco-growers appear to meet with most success in the valley of the Olifant River, an eastern affluent of the Gaurits, where the annual crop is about 3,500,000 pounds of leaf, entirely consumed in South Africa itself. The vine was one of the first European plants introduced by the early settlers into the Cape district. The Huguenot refugees, bringing the plant with them, from the first devoted themselves seriously to viticulture, and the districts where they settled are still the most noted in the colony for the quality of their vintages The climate of the extreme south-west corner of the continent is admirably suited for the cultivation of the vine, probably more so than any other region in the whole world. To the spring rains, which stimulate the vegetation generally, succeed the summer heats, which, thanks to the normal humidity of the atmo- spherfe, bring the grapes to maturity without at the same time drying them. Hence the annual production of the Cape vineyards is relatively higher than that of any other country in the world. The difference is in fact so great that it might