SURVEY CAMP: SOME NOTES ON THE MAKING OF LAND USE MAPS IN NATAL

Abstract

The duties of an Extension Officer of the South African Division of Soil Conservation and Extension are many and varied. Briefly, he gives professional advice on all aspects of farming (except veterinary), technical advice on engineering and building construction applied to farming, he does surveys and advises on dams, contour banks, etc., carries out stocks improvement and seed inspections, enforces the Weeds Act, and last but not least, sees to the enactment of the Soil Conservation Act. In these duties it is considered that one officer and two assistants are necessary for every 200 farms. Johnny Coles, B.Sc., with one full time, and occasional part-time, assistance has, as extension officer in the Ixopo district in Natal, over 1,000 farms comprising 1,800,000 acres, and a considerable number of government-owned properties in his care. Many men in his position would, in desperation over the hopelessness of the task, let things slide. Not so Johnny Coles who set about finding ways and means of getting the work done somehow.