Plainly, the expert tells us that, with the exception of the south-west corner of the Cape Colony, the "conquered territory" of the Orange River Colony, and the high veldt of the Transvaal, the agricultural development of the whole country depends on irrigation. The high-lying plateau of South Africa has by its situation a rainfall suited to tropical countries, and, owing to its altitude, a climate which belongs to a temperate zone. The autumn rains of February and March, which are monsoon rains, would in a country like India be of infinite value; but followed, as they are in South Africa, by a severe and biting winter, they are of little value for agricultural purposes. The long winter and spring drought, and the uncertain summer rains, absolutely prohibit agriculture of any advanced kind. In certain favoured tracts--such as a fifth of Cape Colony, half the Orange River Colony, and two-thirds of the Transvaal--Indian corn, potatoes, roots generally, and pumpkins for feeding stock in winter, can be grown with the aid of the rainfall, and matured in all but years of heavy drought. By means of crop rotations, suitable manures, and good tillage, agricultural development of no mean value could be accomplished within a decade, especially if taken in conjunction with stock-breeding, the principal industry of the country. But, in other parts of the colonies, water comes when it is of no value, and is absent when it would be worth untold gold. To avoid this inconvenience, Mr. Willcocks says, we have only to imitate nature and impound on the surface of the ground the same water which she stores in caverns and fissures; and for instance of what even inferior water may do with the rich soil of South Africa, he gives the Kenilworth Oasis (within a few miles of Kimberley), which is irrigated by the refuse water of the diamond mines. Generally speaking, the annual rainfall is sufficient to allow of the storage of water on a very large scale. Cape Colony with the aid of its rainfall, together with the Orange River, should be able to ensure the perennial irrigation of 1,000,000 acres, the Orange River Colony of 750,000 acres, and the Transvaal of 500,000 acres in the high-lying regions and 1,000,000 in the low tracts, which tracts Mr. Willcocks recommends should be thrown open to our fellow British-Indian subjects. [Illustration: VERMONT MERINO EWES]