Of the library, whose foundation-stone was laid by Sir Alfred Milner, he speaks in highly favourable terms. He says that in laying the foundation-stone no one seemed more keenly impressed than the High Commissioner himself. He prophesied the foundation of a rich university at Buluwayo to replace that other and easy one which a library is avowed to supply. At this some one smiled. But Sir Alfred rebuked him for the frivolity. He had seen enough, Sir Alfred declared, of the temper of this place, to believe a university at Buluwayo to be a consummation neither fanciful nor impossible. In regard to the agrestic qualities of this new district, Mr. H. Marshall Hole has spoken at some length in an article which appeared in an issue of _Colonia_, a magazine published by the Colonial College, Hollesley Bay, Suffolk. He declares that "the great advantage of Rhodesia as an agricultural country is the facility with which irrigation can be carried on; the conformation of the land is undulating, and even the so-called 'flats' are intersected in all directions by valleys, each of which possesses its watercourse, so that by the simple expedient of throwing a dam across these valleys, water may be stored and led on to the adjacent fields as required. The soil is in all parts naturally fertile, but the farmer sometimes has great difficulty in reducing it to a proper state for cultivation, owing to the roots and growth which must be exterminated before the seed is sown. The strongest ploughs and the most careful harrowing are required for this work, otherwise the settler will have to face the annoyance and delay of broken ploughshares, and the disaster of a crop choked by tangle-grass and weeds. The crops to which farmers have hitherto most devoted themselves in Rhodesia are mealies (maize) and forage (oat hay). These find a ready market at all times, as they form the staple food of horses. The next most popular crop is potatoes, which do well, are not liable to disease, and are in so great request that they sometimes fetch 1s. 6d., and seldom fall below 3d. per pound in the market. All kinds of English vegetables prosper with very little trouble, beyond careful watering in dry weather, and weeding during the rains; but, for some unexplained reason, vegetable culture is left almost entirely to the coolies or Indians, who, despite their very primitive methods of irrigation and tillage, make immense profits thereby."