J. D. B. News Letters

(By our Johannesburg correspondent)

A conquest of nature accomplished by the energy and common sense of one man is the transformation of the two farms Cologne and Bombardie, a little to the south of Oogies, in the Eastern Transvaal, writers the Johannesburg “Star.” Somewhat over a dozen years ago these were ordinary fams with land of not more than average quality. Mealie crops raised on tehm ran about eight or nine bags to the morgen. Nowadays the yield averages over thirty bags, and in some parts forty to fifty bags are produced.

The man who has brought this about is E. Lazrus. He has done it by cultivating and fertilizing the soil in the most thorough manner, and on the most scientific principles. Nor did he start with special advantages. His capital was small, but his powers of application and perseverance were unbounded. Mr. Lazarus has shown what can be done on the land, and his achievement is an example which should encourage all famers when they are inclined to lose heart, and an inspiration to those of the youth of South Africa who are looking forward to faming careers. The story of Mr. Lazarus’s work in an epic of the soil, and it should be made widely known.

There was a distinguished gathering at a luncheon under canvas close to the Bombardie homestead recently, at which tributes wre paid to Mr. Lazarus and his work. This was after a two hours’ tour of the wonderful maize and potato lands on the Cologne and Bombardie Estates, as teh farm is now styled. The administrator, Mr. Hofmeyr, observed that it could be said that Mr. Lazarus had prepared for himself a very large place in paradise.

Dr. William Macdonald, the apostle of dry famring, said the great work which Mr. Lazarus was doing in this country was in the regard to tillage. This was the most important work that any farmer could do in South Africa, because wherever one went, from the Cape to the Zambesi, one found the thing that had been lacking in the past had been proper cultivation of the soil. The great lesson which Mr. Lazarus was teaching was to concentrate on the question of tillage. If the tillage were correct, then other matters such as fertilization would be successful.

Lord Knollys, a visitor to South Africa, in mentioning some of the points about Mr. Lazarus’s work which had specially impressed him, particularly alluded to the fact that even in bad years Mr. Lazarus’s crops more nearly approximated the average than crops elsewhere.

Mr. Lazarus also owns the farm Langsloot, near Kinross, some miles to the south-east of the estates. Here there are some 1,800 morgen under cultivation, of which nearly 1,500 are devoted to maize.

The number of white employees on the farms is about forty, and the number is trebled when their families are counted. Native laborers number from 600 to 750.

Over 2,000 oxen are used for ploughing, transport and other work.

Mr. Lazarus arrived in South Africa as a young man, quite penniless, and became an assistant in a store, working his way until at last he owned a small store. While carrying on the business of store-keeping he came to the conclusion that maize growing could be made more profitable than maize selling, and he therefore turned his attention to producing rather than to distributing. The result is an object lesson to South Africa.