THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1907. AGRICULTURE IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8392, 9 April 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1907. AGRICULTURE IN THE TRANSVAAL.

The Transvaal Agricultural Department is at present taking steps to improve the state of agriculture in the Transvaal. A Mr G. De Sandford Baylis, of the Transvaal Agricultural Department, has been sent to this colony to collect information and secure seeds of New Zealand grasses for trial at the experimental stations in the Transvaal. As the Transvaal has a good future in front of it as an agricultural and sheepraising country, a few words concerning the conditions existing in the country should not be out of place. The high veldt, having an average elevation of from 4,000 feet to 6,000 feet, forms the chief stockraising area in the Transvaal. Although possessing several valuable pasture and forage grasses, the native veldt of these high regions hardly includes one variety which will afford green pasturage during the winter months, practically all the native grasses becoming much burnt, and withered by the frosts in the winter time. The summer in these regions is often very hot, dry winds are frequent, and the rain is varied and intermittent. The summer season is the rainy season. The rain is brought on chiefly ,by thunderstorms, which are frequently a large quantity of rain falling in an hour or loss. Although in many districts the rainfall is extremely small, in others fifteen inches, and in others thirty inches, are sometimes recorded, a quantity which is quite sufficient for the production of good crops were the rainfall more evenly distributed. The rains practically cease about March. The winter period may be described as a period of drought lasting about four or five months with

clear, cloudless skies and often cold winds, and two months, according to locality and altitude, of hard frost at night. Practically all of the high veldt in the Transvaal is capable of pi*oducing both good sheep and good cattle, and in many parts a useful horse can also be bred. The wool grown, where attention is paid to it, is c£ a very good staple. The merino is at present probably the class of sheep best adapted to the country, and several flocks of high merit have been started since the war, a large number of rams having been imported from America, Australia drid Tasmania. There are large areas in the high veldt which have a distinct future before them as stock-raising country. The Transvaal Department of Agriculture, which dates practically from the con ■ elusion of the b'oer War, has taken an active part in the endeavour to solve pressing problems. Besides the various divisions of horticulture, tobacco, chemistry, and so foxth, there are several State farms situated in the different districts upon all of which experiments are carried out. Plants from all parts of the world are tested at the chief experimental station. These plants include grasses, forage plants, cottons, and various fibres, oil seeds, cereals, and other plants having economic uses likely to be suitable to the country. Samples of seeds are distributed amongst farmers applying for the same. The farmers carry out experiments with these seeds on their own farms. Between 700 and 800 farmers are now co-operating with the Department in the various districts in the Transvaal and reporting to the Department as to the success of their experiments. It is with the object of carrying on further experiments that Mr Baylis has been sent to New Zealand to obtain samples of the grass-seeds of this colony.