cure.' That was how the majority of them put it. The veterinary
surgeons received very little encouragement. If a Boer makes up his
mind that his cattle are going to die, he likes to have all the honour
of killing them himself, and he does not want any vet. about his
place, propounding advanced theories which he does not understand.
Added to this, it appears that when the disease first made its
appearance in the country, certain vets, made themselves so ridiculous
in the eyes of the farmers who invited them to inspect sick cattle,
that distrust immediately took the place of suspicion, and confidence
was never established.

[Illustration: BOER CATTLE FARM NEAR MAJUBA.]

The farmers who managed to save a considerable number of cattle were
not slow to make hay while the sun shone, and some of them may
probably have turned up their noses at the mere mention of the Yukon
goldfields. Prospecting for gold is a somewhat risky business, but the
Boer looks upon transactions in salted oxen as eminently satisfactory,
more especially where the buyer negotiates the risks. Nothing affords
him more pleasure than to hand over twenty or thirty oxen, and receive
in exchange twenty-five pounds per head. But, unlike the English
problem, rinderpest is not always with the Boer.

In this connection there is a story to the effect that a certain Boer
farmer discovered one day that his cattle had contracted a very
serious disease, and he was advised by the Government vet., who
happened to be passing that way, to inoculate immediately, and after
the lapse of ten days to repeat the process. When the vet. returned a
few weeks later he was surprised to learn that the majority of the
cattle had died.