Motives for mechanisation in South African agriculture, c1940–1980

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Notes

The debate between Marglin and Landes was primarily about to what extent the desire for control was an independent cause of industrialisation.

CAD, NTS, No. 3/371, Vol. 9257, TAU Annual Congress, 1938: “Calls for Higher Prices to Stop the Drift to the Towns” TAU Annual Congress, 25 August 1939: “Protest Against Depression of Prices and Increase in Cost of Milling” Farmers Weekly, 12 August 1936; 25 January 1939; 1 February 1939; 15 February 1939.

CAD, MLD, No. 14/20, Vol. 19, J.G. van der Merwe to the Minister of Agriculture, 10 May 1955.

See also Union of South Africa, Assembly Debates, 12 May 1960, p. 7457.

This is not a statement about the relationship between wages and the marginal productivity of farm labour. It is possible that the low wages were either a cause or a reflection of low productivity levels. The point is that farm workers could, and increasingly so over time, did obtain both higher wages and higher levels of productivity in unskilled work outside the agricultural sector.

Farmers Weekly, 14 September 1932.

CAD, LDB, R3633, “Memoranda Issued by the Department of Agriculture”, c1930. See also Farmers Weekly, 6 August 1930, “Farm Labour Shortage”.

Bradford, A Taste of Freedom, p. 55.

Farmers Weekly, 11 June 1930, p. 1101, “Ox or Tractor: Which?”.

CAD, NTS, No. 3/371, Vol. 9257, Theo Wassenaar to the Secretary of Native Affairs, 7 May 1947; No. 222/280, Vol. 2095, D.L. Smit to Major Rosdeath, 10 December 1943.CAD, NTS, No. 222/280, Vol. 2229, Resolutions Adopted at a Special TAU Congress, 17 August 1943. Farmers Weekly: “Delinquent Natives”, 1 December 1943; “Facing Up to the Farm Labour Problem”, 12 January 1944; “Native Policy”, 2 February 1944; “Ticket System to Deal With Wont‐Works”, 26 September 1945

Farmers Weekly, 30 September 1942, p. 76, “The Squatter Laws, By Anti‐Squatter, Orange Free State” 1 December 1943, p. 511, “Degenerate Natives” 12 January 1944, “Facing Up to the Farm Labour Problem” 12 January 1944, p. 791, “Labour Camps”.

Farmers Weekly, 2 February 1944, “Native Policy” 16 February 1944, “A New Approach to the Labour Problem: ‘The more we farmers pay the native the more time he finds to remain idle and devote to his bed and beer’”.

Farmers Weekly, 5 January 1944, p. 739: “Native Education and Farm Wages”.

“Raising the Native”, Farmers Weekly, 25 March 1952, p. 89; “Native Uplift”, Farmers Weekly, 6 May 1942, p. 449.

CAD, NTS, No. 10/280, Vol. 2010, Memo from Agricultural Officer, c1944. The extent of mechanisation in the wheat sector is depicted in Farmers Weekly, 1 January 1941, pp. 1010–1.

Farmers Weekly, 1 February 1939, p. 1338, Picture Caption: “Mechanical Substitutes for Dear Labour”.

Farmers Weekly, 16 January 1946, Letter by Luther Uys.

Farmers Weekly, 1 May 1946, V.J. Kennard; 8 May 1946, Auld Hand, Transvaal; 9 October 1946, “Farm Labour Problem Prominent on SAAU Agenda”: “A request is made that profits on tractors and other implements should be curtailed as the high prices restrict food production”.

Farmers Weekly, 11 June 1930, “Ox or Tractor: Which?” Farmers Weekly, 5 March 1947, “Natives on the Reserves and on the Farms” Farmers Weekly,21 July 1948, “Pros and Cons of Mechanised Farming”.

Farmers Weekly, 5 March 1947, “Natives on the Reserves and on the Farms”.

See Appendix A.

CAD, NTS, No. 463/280, Vol. 2229, Minutes of a Meeting Between NAD and the SAAU, 1 November 1948.

CAD, NTS, No. 463/280, Vol. 2229, Minutes of a Meeting Between NAD and the SAAU, 6 December 1948.

Farmers Weekly, 5 May 1948, Letter to the Editor.

Farmers Weekly, 21 July 1948, p. 55, “Pros and Cons of Mechanised Farming”.

Farmers Weekly, 8 December 1948, p. 93, “Wheat Grown in Drought”.

Farmers Weekly, 14 March 1951.

Farmers Weekly, 4 April 1951

Interview with Bryna Davis, Lydenburg, 1990; Posel, The Making of Apartheid, p. 244.

See Appendix B.

This was also influenced by the fact that the early generation of mechanical cane cutters did not cope well with the rolling hills of Natal. Thanks to Michael De Klerk for this point.