177?1 . Síptembei*. of the country’s produce on its own account, and, after ma- nufadturing it, fold the goods fo manufactured at a reafon- able price. I did not find more than one farmer who knew how to turn his wool to any account. This was a German, who taught his wife and female flaves to fpin it, and make tolerable good ftockings o f it. On the other hand, I have feen many of the farmers, that lived at a great diftance from the town, go without ftockings and out at the elbows, though at the fame time they were in pof- feffion of feveral hundred iheep. This proceeded as much from the dearnefs o f wool, as from their diftance from the town; and it is for the fame reafon, that the yeomen in fome places here and there in Roggeveld, let their children run about juft like the Hottentots, with nothing but a iheep-ikin hanging over their ihoulders, and without a rag of linen on their backs. For want o f artizans and mechanics, many o f the more diftant farmers are obliged to make and mend their own ihoes and clothes, as well as they can, themfelves; and make ihift with a few cracked veflels of earthen-ware, which they have been fo lucky as to bring all the way home from the Cape, without farther damage, for the ufe o f their houihold. There is not a fliadow of doubt, but that the colony is able to maintain all the artizans and manufacturers it has occafion for. The tradis of country neareft to the Cape have, on account of the greater vent they have for their commodities, not only been able to cultivate wine and corn fufficient for their own ufe and that of the town, but like- Wife in fuch quantities, as to fend a great deal to Europe and and the Iile de France. In the fame proportion might the uvs- culture of the lands be increafed round about the harbours above-mentioned, or other marts properly fituated for the purpofe. Thoufands of plots of land, which, on account of the long way it is from them to the Cape, are now left an their original ftate, would by this means produce as •much corn and wine, as would be fufficient to exchange with the wares of the artificers and trades-people in the town. Befides this, the advantages arifing from the grazing 'o f cattle would rather increafe than diminifh, i f the ftraw and pafturage were managed better for the advantage of the cattle, than they are at prefent. As, agreeable to the fcheme propofed above, many of the jonrnies now made to the Cape might be avoided, a great many oxen might be difpenfed with, which are now kept merely for this purpofe; and in their ftead milch cows might be kept to increafe the quantity o f milk, butter and cheefe, in order to anfwer the confumption o f an increafed number o f people. With regard to the threihing of corn and manuring the land, operations which at prefent are either ill-performed, or elfe entirely negle&ed, there is much-to be noticed, with a view to prevent that deterioration of the arable land and pafturage, which is obferved to take place iii fuch fpots as have been cultivated for any length of time. The planting o f olive and mulberry-trees, together with the importation and proper management o f filk-worms, would probably, likewife, be ufeful acquifitions to the colonies, ferving to augment its population, as it would indubitably be a peculiar advantage to the company to find the people, M m a who
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