from Bulawayo south-east into the Gwanda mining district for a distance
of 110 miles.

Regarding the pastoral and agricultural capabilities of the country
there need be little doubt. All of it, except those lower grounds to the
north and south-east which are infested by the tsetse-fly, is fit for
cattle; some parts, such as the Matoppo Hills in Matabililand and still
more the Inyanga plateau in Mashonaland (mentioned in the last preceding
chapter), offer excellent pasture. The "high veldt" of central
Matabililand is no less available for sheep. Most of the cattle that
were on the land have perished in the recent murrain. But this plague
will pass by and may not return for many years, perhaps for centuries,
and the animals that will be brought in to restock the country will
probably be of better breeds. The quality of the soil for the purposes
of tillage has been tested by Europeans in a few places only. Much of
it is dry; much of it, especially where the subjacent rock is granitic,
is thin or sandy. Still, after allowing for these poorer tracts, there
remains an immense area of land which is fit to raise cereals and some
subtropical crops such as cotton. The immediate question is not,
therefore, as to the productive capacities of the country, but as to the
existence of a market for the products themselves. Nearly all staple
food-stuffs have of late years become so cheap in the markets of Europe
and North America, owing to the bringing under cultivation of so much
new land and the marvellous reduction in the cost of ocean carriage,
that in most of such articles Mashonaland, even with a railway to the
sea, could not at present compete successfully in those markets with
India and South America and the western United States. It is therefore
to consumers nearer at hand that the country must look. If gold-mining
prospers, population will rapidly increase, and a market will be created
at the agriculturists' own door. If, on the other hand, the reefs
disappoint the hopes formed of them, and the influx of settlers is too
small to create any large demand, tillage will spread but little, and
the country will be left to be slowly occupied by ranchmen. Thus the
growth of population and the prosperity of every industry will depend
upon the extent to which gold-mining can be profitably developed. Of
course I speak only of the near future. However rich some of the reefs
may turn out, they will be exhausted within a few decades, and the