Milking the Growing Market
With the bull fight behind him, Edgar Whitehead got cracking with the restoration of Witchwood.
There was an acute shortage of whole milk in Rhodesia immediately after the war. Edgar Whitehead decided to switch to dairying. The rundown of the Air Training Scheme alarmed many of the milk producers near Gwelo. One of them decided to sell his large herd. It was not pure bred but the owner had used pedigree Aryshire bulls on them and had many good crossbred young cows and heifers.
Edgar sent Nat to Gwelo for the sale. Umtali's local veterinary surgeon who was an expert on Ayrshires very kindly consented to accompany him to tell him what to buy. They bought forty head at thirty pounds each and a young pedigree bull for one hundred pounds.
About the same time one of Edgar's elderly neighbors was ordered by his doctor to go and live at sea level because of a heart condition. Edgar was able to buy his old farm truck which was still serviceable. His prewar labor was returning. He managed to buy four trained oxen and a plough so he could begin converting the orchard to arable and restore the paddocks to their former condition.
He was still gloomy about the years it would take to finish the dam and install the irrigation system, build the additional roads to open up the lower part of the farm and clear additional land. So, after a long conference with Nat, who during the war had worked with tanks, Edgar invested a large part of his war-time savings in a Caterpillar bulldozer. Fortunately he ordered the special mountain model with wider tracks and a slightly longer axle although it cost two hundred pounds more than the standard model. If he had not done so they would have had to wait a long time because the Food Production Committee allocated bulldozers on arrival amongst all those who had ordered them and Witchwood's priority was low. Nobody else wanted to pay the extra two hundred pounds.
Another reason for dairying was that Edgar's next door neighbor, Leslie Seymour- Smith, was nearing completing of Leopard Rock Hotel and would require much milk. He had been very fortunate in obtaining seven Italian Craftsmen from the Internment Camp for construction work and their being skilled in building he had not required a contractor and only an apprentice architect. The roof was being put on and he arranged the official opening for June 1946 just after the bulldozer arrived. The opening party was a tremendous affair. The ceremony was performed by Huggins and both he and his wife spent the night at Witchwood. Nat and Edgar returned to continue the party at Leopard Rock after seeing their guests safely to bed.
Unexpectedly, soon after, a telegram arrived. Edgar's butterfly collecting brother Hugh who had worked at the de Havilland Aircraft Factory Laboratory during the war had died of a heart complaint in the London Hospital. Edgar knew he had gone there for treatment and also knew that his heart complaint was the same one his first manager at Witchwood and closest friend Ferguson had suffered but had no idea Hugh's end was so near. He was only thirty-eight which meant that Edgar was now the youngest surviving member of the family. Another link with his family home, Efford, and the past was gone. More than ever he was separated from his old life in England.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo Credit: Tony Ward Collection on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/windlass21/23322300062