"But there are different ways of making a fortune or of saving money,"
replied Mr Stanley. "It can be done by agriculture as well as by
mining. The farmer, however, must be content to look upon the farm as
his home, and the capital and labour devoted to it as constantly
increasing in value. The farm which he buys at 10 shillings an acre may
become worth in a few years from 5 to 10 pounds an acre. There is his
profit. He buys an estate say of 200 acres for 100 pounds, and in five
or ten years' time it may be worth 500 or 1,000 pounds. It depends upon
the progress made in the general development of a country by the working
of its mineral resources and by its commerce and trade. The greater the
development of the country the greater will be the value of the farmer's
land, because more people are constantly coming who don't care to be
pioneers, but will buy a farm already developed. The pioneer then goes
from farm to farm, and in this he makes his profit. People who went
from New England to Ohio or Kentucky, for instance, developed farms
which they sold at an enhanced price, afterwards removing to Kansas;
after getting, perhaps, twenty-five times as much for their farms in
Kansas as they had paid for them, they went next to Colorado, where
their farms ultimately fetched twenty-five or fifty times as much as
their original cost. Then they went on to Salt Lake, Mexico, Arizona,
or other parts of America, and repeated the same process. That is the
way a farmer makes his money in such countries."
Mr Stanley has already dealt at great length with the question of
irrigation, which is so important in countries where the water supply is
inconstant. In the course of his remarks with our representative he
further elaborated this point, showing how the backwardness of
agriculture in certain parts of South Africa, as well as in other
comparatively new countries, is the fault of the people rather than of
the countries.
"The other week," said he, "I suggested the formation of a united South
African waterworks company. There are hundreds of streams in Rhodesia
and other parts of South Africa, and yet every casual tourist says the
land is worth nothing for agriculture. That is what was said about
Mildura, in Australia, until irrigation was started. The same system is
necessary in South Africa, and a powerful irrigation company could
distribute the water when available, and also conserve it for the dry
seasons."
"I daresay it is your opinion that little can be done in this direction
by the isolated efforts of individuals?"
"Practically nothing," replied Mr Stanley. "If new settlers see land
near water they will buy it; but they come to the country with slender
capital, perhaps two or three hundred pounds, and cannot afford to sink
wells in the desert; but if someone will raise that water for them, and
sell the land, it will be taken at once. The people who settle,
supposing they are English, will constantly keep English influence equal
to the Boer."