Transvaal

Besides the Pretoria fields there are diamondiferous areas (al luvial diggings) in the Bloemhof district on the Vaal river north east of Kimberley, and in other regions. In 1926 the whole out put of diamonds in the Transvaal was valued at £4,487,921.

Platinum.—In 1924, in the Lydenburg district, a bed of norite, an igneous rock in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, was found to contain platinum, the quantity varying from 2 to 5 pennyweight per ton. The outcrop of this bed has been traced for about 6o miles. In 1925 platinum bearing rocks were recognised near Potgietersrust. The Bushveld norite has also been traced in the Rustenberg area for about Ioo m. At present production is only in the experimental stage.

Coal and Other Minerals.—There are extensive beds of good coal, including thick seams of steam coal near the Rand and other goldfields. Coal appears to have been first discovered in the neigh bourhood of Bronkhorst Spruit between the Wilge and Olifants rivers, where it was so near the surface that farmers dug it up for their own use. In 1887 coal was found at Boksburg in the East Rand, and a mine was at once started. The principal collieries are those at Boksburg and at Brakpan, also on the East Rand, with a coal area of 2,400 acres; at Vereeniging and Klerksdorp, near the Vaal; at Watervaal, 12 m. north of Pretoria, and in the Middel burg district, which now supplies most of the coal used by the gold mines. Like that of Natal the Transvaal coal burns with a clear flame and leaves little ash. The mines are free from gas and fire damp and none is more than Soo ft. deep. The output in 1926 was over seven and a half million tons.

Iron and copper are widely distributed. The Yzerberg near Marabastad in the Zoutpansberg consists of exceedingly rich iron ore, which has been smelted by the natives for many centuries. Silver is found in many districts, and mines near Pretoria have yielded in one year ore worth £30,000.

Salt is obtainable from the many pans on the plateaux, notably in the Zout(salt)pansberg, and was formerly manufactured in considerable quantities.

Agriculture.

Next to mining, agriculture is the most impor tant industry. The chief occupation of the majority of the white farmers is stock-raising. The high veld is admirably adapted for the raising of stock, its grasses being of excellent quality and the climate good. Even better pasture is found in the low veld, but there stock suffers in summer from many endemic diseases, and in the more northerly regions is subject to the attack of the tsetse fly. The banken veld is also unsuited in summer for horses and

sheep, though cattle thrive. Much of the stock is moved from the lower to the higher regions according to the season. Among the high veld farmers breeding of merino sheep is popular.

The amount of land under cultivation is very small in com parison with the area of the province. The small proportion of land tilled is due to many causes, among which paucity of popula tion is not the least. Moreover while large areas on the high veld are suitable for the raising of crops of a very varied char acter, in other districts, including a great part of the low veld, arable farming is impossible or unprofitable. Many regions suffer permanently from deficient rainfall; in others, owing to the absence of irrigation works, the water supply is lost, while the burning of the grass at the end of summer, a practice adopted by many farmers, tends to impoverish the soil and render it arid.

The country suffers also from periods of excessive heat and gen eral drought, while locusts used to sweep over the land, de vouring every green thing. In some seasons the locusts, both red and brown, come in enormous swarms covering an area of 5 m.

broad and from 4o to 6o m. long. The chief method employed for their destruction is spraying the swarms with arsenic. The districts with the greatest area under cultivation are Heidelberg, Witwatersrand, Pretoria, Standerton and Krugersdorp. The chief crops grown for grain are maize (mealie), kaffir corn and wheat.

(See SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF.) Maize is the staple food of the natives. Oats, barley and millet are largely grown for forage. Oats are cut shortly before reaching maturity, when they are known as oat-hay. The chief vegetables grown are potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, onions and tomatoes. Fruit farming is a grow ing industry on the slopes of the plateaux and in the warmer val leys, where citrus and other sub-tropical fruits thrive, as, for ex ample, about Rustenberg, Waterberg, etc. In 1925 there were nearly two million orange trees in the province, mostly navel oranges. Grapefruit trees numbered about 27,00o, peach trees 33,000, and apple trees nearly 200,000. Apples, and, to some extent peaches thrive better in the higher districts. These figures refer to trees, the fruit of which is mostly grown for export.