it was to the interest of the enterprising native to rear as many as possible, so that when hard up he could slay one of his "stock" and receive the coveted reward! The Aliwal North, Herschel, and New England districts lie between 4500 and 6000 feet above sea-level, and have a rainfall of some thirty inches per annum. A good Indian corn crop may be counted on every year, and wheat in five years out of six. Only a third of the cultivable area is put under cultivation, though the grasses are good and one acre can support a sheep. Agriculture is generally backward, rotations of crops and manuring being unknown. Turnips and swedes for winter feeding of stock have been raised with success. BASUTOLAND Basutoland has a better rainfall than any part of South Africa, except Natal and the south-western corner of Cape Colony. The maximum fall per annum, save in years of drought, may be put at thirty-five inches, the minimum at twenty-eight. It is nearly always sufficient to allow of wheat being sown between July and August, and reaped in December without irrigation. About one-third of cultivated land is devoted to wheat, a third to Indian corn, and a third to millets. These last are sown between the middle of September and the middle of November, and are reaped in April. No rotations of cereals with leguminous crops are practised; no manure is used. Cultivation has been going on for thirty years, and the soil is by no means as productive as it was originally. According to the authority of Mr. Willcocks, if suitable manures were employed and careful cultivation gone in for, this country with its friable soil should be eminently suitable for all root crops, such as potatoes, onions, and turnips, while beetroot would answer admirably in the valley of the Caledon River up-stream to Ladybrand, and in the main tributaries of the Caledon. The denudation of the country--owing to the numerous ravines which cut it up--is serious, and, if allowed to continue, it will mean incalculable loss. The scouring action of the water is aggravated by the fact that the Basuto villages are built on the tops of the hills. The steeps are constantly worn into tracks by the women-carriers of water from the springs, and these tracks become during the rain a series of rivulets which contribute further to the general denudation. To save the land from the fate of Palestine, which, in somewhat the same way, became denuded by hundreds of years of cultivation and intense habitation, an ingenious arrangement for planting willow and poplar cuttings in damp ravines, and wattles and aloes in the dry ones, has been described by Mr. Willcocks--a remedy which at the outset seems costly, but will finally become self-supporting. The young trees will be pollarded and produce fuel, which is badly needed in this at present extraordinarily treeless region; and it is even possible that if the ravines were filled with trees it might result in an increased rainfall during the critical