Complex sentence: In 1926 he bought some hundred acres of veldt near Elgin, on the Palmiet River, 50 miles from Cape Town where he built a farmhouse, thatched it with local reed and set to work to make the most unpromising soil productive.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1926 he bought some hundred acres of veldt near Elgin, on the Palmiet River, 50 miles from Cape Town. Here he built a farmhouse thatched with local reed and set to work to make this most unpromising soil productive.