PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
70
It consisted of five he thought it was hopeless. This is a particularly interesting case Johansen says for it was the best attempt at a game-proof fence I have seen. strands of plain wire, and the main posts, from which the wire was stretched, were good and well put in the ground, but it failed in several points. The wire was too thin (No. 8, I should think, instead of No. 4), and staples were used to attach it to the small intermediate posts. It was not high enough, and the small intermediate posts between the big straining posts were far too small and weak, and were hardly set in the ground at all. The damage begun by the game has now been completed by grass fires, as a large majority of small posts are burnt. Mr. Johansen tells me that this fence cost £40 a mile, making a total loss of £200 for the five miles. The damage done to this fence was by herds of game which cross over this part of the Mua Hills from the Athi River plains to Machakos. Close to the house there is 64 acres of wheat and 20 acres of Indian corn and beans; these crops were not damaged by game except the beans, which were nearly all eaten by the small game--steinbuck and duikers. Almost at the foot of the hills. Mr. Johansen planted 32 acres of wheat, and kept two natives there with fires at night, and thus succeeded in preventing the He says the game gave most crop being damaged except a little in one corner. trouble the first year he was on the farm after the Wakamba were moved back, and have never been so bad since. He says also that there were no ticks up on the hills then, but that they have come since. His chief complaint against the game is that they carry and distribute so many ticks, which give great trouble with his cattle and horses.
Mr. Leuis, a Boer from South Africa, has a farm on the lower slopes of the Mua Hills. When he first took up the land five years ago he planted 22 acres of Indian corn and beans; it was fenced with an entirely inadequate fence; and Mr. Leuis states that the whole crop was eaten by the game. Whether this was so or not
cannot
say now, for, as in the case of most of the damaged crops, practically nothing is to be seen but the ploughed land and remains of old, dried-up stalks. However, if there was enough rain to grow a crop that year, it is most probable that the game did eat it all. He has since given up the idea of agriculture, and now goes in entirely for cattle, and has 55 good cows and young oxen. Complains that the game brings great quantities of ticks.
Messrs. C. A. and H. D. Hill have a farm on the Machakos side of the Mua Hills; they are going in chiefly for ostriches. They have 50 acres of cultivation unfenced. In 1909, which was a dry year, the game ate practically the whole of the crop of Indian corn and beans: in 1910 the game did not overrun the farm much, and the crops were only slightly damaged. This season they have 40 acres of beans and Indian corn, and 10 acres of wheat; the wild pigs and porcupines have done a good deal of damage to the beans and Indian corn; the wheat they have harvested in good condition. They also have half an acre of lucerne, which has suffered from the drought. Their chief complaint against the game is that it breaks down the fences, brings ticks, and fouls the water holes and eats all the grass. They also complained that lions gave them a great deal of trouble.
Sir Alfred Pease and Captain Slatter have a large farm on the Mua Hills, and are going in almost entirely for ostriches. They have 50 acres of Indian corn and beans close to the house, and fairly well fenced, which has not been damaged. On the lower slopes of the hills they tried growing a little wheat, but it was so damaged that they gave it up. However, they are anxious to preserve the game, and do not allow shooting on their land. Lions have given them a good deal of trouble, and once, about six months ago, broke into one of the pens of young ostriches at night and killed over twenty birds.
Last year six Messrs. Lambert and Wilson have a farm at Kilima Kiu. They are going in principally for ostriches, and have only lately taken up the farm. acres of oats and wheat were planted about half a mile from the house; it was A rhinoceros did considerable unfenced, and was entirely eaten by the game. They have five acres of lucerne, 20 of oats and Indian corn ready planted for this season. damage to the lucerne. They have quite recently put up 14 miles of wire fencing round the house and cultivation, and so far it has not been damaged. Zebra and hartebeest are the offenders in this district. They are also troubled a great deal by lions, and have been forced to build a large enclosure for the ostriches at night, in the erection of which 7,000 yards of barbed wire and 750 yards of wire netting have been used.
Messrs. Joubert, two Boers from South Africa, have a 2,000-acre farm at Lukenia, not far from the Athi River. There are five good springs on this farm,
71
but the owners are making practically no use of them; they told me that they have no capital to enlarge and develop the springs. They have about 20 acres in one place fenced with two strands of barbed wire, and about 40 in another place unfenced. They have been occupying the farm nearly five years, and say that the first two seasons there was fair rain, and harvested a certain amount of Indian corn and beans, but that the crops were a good deal damaged by the game. Since then the drought has been so severe that the crops have failed, and the district has been overrun by game, and any irrigated crops would have been ruined unless they were properly fenced. They have eight oxen, two cows, and a calf, and have two small irrigated patches of about one-quarter of an acre and one acre close up to the houses planted with vegetables and sweet-potatoes and Indian corn, and on these and game meat they are living. These small gardens, in spite of being so close to the houses, have been damaged considerably by game. This is a valuable farm, and could be developed a great deal by an energetic man with capital and knowledge, but the present owners will never do anything with it, with or without the game. chief complaint was on account of the drought more than the game. I am thoroughly familiar with this type of Boer in South Africa; they are the worst type of the
·Beiwohner" class. They have two miserable little tin huts put up, and in these they are living ir a sad state of poverty and over-crowding, occasionally making a little money by doing odd jobs of ploughing and transport for well-to-do neighbours: They are very anxious to sell their farm and join the other Boer Colony up on the Uasin Gishu Plateau. The game might be blamed for this state of affairs by the casual observer, but those who know this class of Boer-without capital or education
know that they will never develop land under any conditions.
++
Their
Mr. T. Deacon has a farm near Athi River Station; he has 600 acres of grazing land fenced in with a wire fence on top of a bank, his idea being that the game would see the bank, and not run into the fence; the idea is a good one, and it was an interesting and praiseworthy experiment, but did not prove entirely satisfactory, as the fence has been badly damaged in spite of the bank. He has been on his farm 4 years and he first planted 50 acres of Indian corn and beans inside the 600 acres the of fenced land, and that year harvested a pretty good crop; the last three years drought has been so severe that he has not planted. On another part of the farm hẹ has fenced off a piece of land of 20 acres where the river makes a sharp bend and protects the land on three sides. This he has partially irrigated, and grows rape, lucerne, and sweet potatoes, which are undamaged by the game. He is going in largely for pigs and has over 300; he also has some ostriches and 67 oxen. five years' experience he tells me that he does not consider the district suitable for agriculture as the rainfall is too light. He considers it an ostrich and stock country, and intends to try sheep later. Lions have killed seven of his oxen and leopards two of his young ostriches since he has occupied the farm.
After
Mr. Anderson is managing four farms for Mr. Linton near Athi River Station. He is going in entirely for stock and ostrich farming as he and Mr. Linton do not consider the rainfall on the Athi plains sufficient or reliable enough to justify them going in for agriculture on a large scale. He has several hundred acres fenced, but the fence is too low, only four wires, and weak. His only complaints against the game are that they bring the ticks and occasionally break his fence. Probably why it is not more often broken is that it is so low that the game jump it.
He tells me that he is not at all confident that the extermination of the game would clear the district of ticks, for the following reason:-On his farm there is
a deep dry donga, with precipitous sides, up or down which it is impossible for any game to get. He says he has never seen any game in this donga, and the natives say it does not go there, yet the bottom of this donga, which is covered with rocks and boulders and long grass, is so infested with ticks that it is impossible to I have seen the same phenomenon in steep remain in it more than a few minutes.
dry parts of the Athi River myself, and it is difficult to explain it, except on the supposition that the ticks obtain sufficient blood for breeding purposes from small animals.
If either of the fencing propositions is favourably considered, it might be a wise precaution for the Game Department to be authorised to enclose a small area of 2 or 3 acres on a farm one of the worst game districts with the type of game-proof fence suggested. This land might then be cultivated by the owner and left to prove whether it is possible to put up a game-proof fence at a cost which would not be prohibitive.