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112 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
miles.
Except in the Caledon River districts little of this great expanse was
capable of supporting any clustered population or even available for
agriculture. The soil throughout was shallow, and in the southern and
western sections the rainfall was ordinarily light. There were a
number of widespreading karroos, and in the dry months the greater part
of the veld was little better than the desert. The so-called farms were
chiefly cattle and sheep pastures, where the yield of grass and herbage
was so varying that several thousand acres were needed for any fair
assurance of
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safety
for a small herd. The total number of farms secured by grant was only
twelve hundred and sixty-five, but they extended over eleven million
acres. Of the farm owners only one hundred and thirty-nine were
Englishmen, and a number of these were nonresidents.1 In
the abstract there was seemingly little attraction or value to excite
any flow of immigration or to make the province a prize worth the cost
of defending.
Not
only the prospects of the Orange Free State and of its neighbor on the
other side of the Vaal seemed dull and inconsiderable to most
observers, but the condition of Natal and
i " South Africa," Theal.
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