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Department of Lands (LDE) and Agriculture (LDB/MLD/R) files

Literature › Primary sources
Kind state archives
Producer Departments of Lands and Agriculture
Coverage 1909-1959
Works using it 7

Debates

Debate Works
Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry 3
Agricultural policy, productivity, farm size and land reform 2
The state and capital: instrumentalism, autonomy and fractions of capital 2
Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War 1
Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control 1
Historiographical approaches 1
Urban segregation, Group Areas and the apartheid city 1

Works using this source

Work As cited Period How used
Delius and Schirmer (2000) Cape Archives Depot, Department of Agriculture/Lands correspondence (CAD LDB R4250 vols 3232-3263; CAD MLD 14/20 vol. 19) 1949-1959 Farmers' letters of complaint and ministerial replies supply evidence on white farmers' attitudes to the conservation programme.
Morrell (1988) Central Archives Depot, Secretary for Lands (LDE) files, 10 Vol. III and 1520/39 1909-1910s Evidence of state credit and cattle loans to progressive Middelburg farmers and of Ermelo farmers' attempt to recruit labour.
Morrell (1990) Department of Agriculture crop reporting files (CAD, LDB 921, 924, 926: R1074/3/1, /3, /16, /32) 1915-1926 Shows how magistrates selected progressive white farmers as crop reporters and how the system changed in 1921.
Parnell and Mabin (1995) Central Archives Depot, Pretoria, Department of Lands (LDE) 555, 7294 'Townships Board - Appointment of Members' and Annual Reports of the Department of Lands 1912, 1913 1910-1914 Documents transfer of the townships boards to the Department of Lands and its bureaucratic ambitions over urban land.
Schirmer (1995) Department of Agriculture, 'Memoranda issued by the Department of Agriculture', ca. 1930 (CAD, Department of Agriculture (R), 3633) c.1930 Shows that outside the Cape farm labour depended on squatter/tenant labour tied to land and grazing.
Schirmer (1999) CAD MLD No. 14/20 Vol. 19: letters from farmers to the Minister of Agriculture, 1954-1959 1954-1959 Shows poor farmers demanding more state intervention, price controls and land redistribution.
Schirmer (1999) Central Archives Depot (CAD) files LDE No. 22108 Vol. 1158 and LDB No. R2542 Vol. 1572: extension officers' inspection reports on land settlement schemes, 1916-1928 1916-1928 Shows extension officers' reports that settlers were conservative and refused to develop their holdings despite state support.
Schirmer (2004) CAD, LDB R3633, Memoranda Issued by the Department of Agriculture, c1930; CAD MLD 14/20 vol. 19 c1930; 1955 Source for the Department's statement that African labour supply depends on land and grazing, and for 1950s protection of weak farmers.