AGRICULTURE — GENERAL 3 21 



To serve the short grass areas of the Eastern Province there is an 

 experimental station at Serere, which now covers i,ooo acres, the 

 station having been enlarged to provide an adequate resting period 

 for the land required for cultivation. The plots have in recent 

 years been redesigned on the contour plan of cultivation, devised 

 to arrest soil erosion. At Serere cotton breeding has been the most 

 important work so far, but all other field crops suited to the area 

 are also dealt with, and as it is situated in a cattle district, cultiva- 

 tion is carried out with bullocks. The problems of soil deterioration 

 and erosion and of the utilization of kraal manure occupy a promi- 

 nent place in the programme. Linked with Serere are a small num- 

 ber of demonstration substations of five to thirty acres each, a series 

 of one-acre cotton variety trials scattered throughout the Eastern 

 and Northern Provinces; and also a series of quarter-acre plots. At 

 Bugusege there is a small arabica coffee experimental station which 

 serves the Bugishu area, where approximately 1,500 tons of coffee 

 per annum are now produced by natives. The annual reports are 

 issued in two parts, of which the second is devoted mainly to work 

 by the specialist research officers. A series of twenty-one circulars 

 was published between 1920 and 1927. 



The headquarters for administration and research of the Veteri- 

 nary Department is at Entebbe, where there is a fine new veteri- 

 nary laboratory. In addition to research activities, serum for 

 immunization against rinderpest, pleuro-pneumonia, and other 

 diseases is supplied to the whole protectorate. Government stock 

 farms are maintained by the department at Koja, Sukulu and 

 Soroti, and similar institutions at Mbarara and Lira are main- 

 tained by the native administrations concerned. At each of these 

 centres a close study is made of the indigenous breeds, and the 

 animals are kept in conditions similar to, but slightly better than 

 those prevailing throughout the country, with a view to breeding 

 out particular weaknesses. Koja, the largest, is in an isolated 

 position on a peninsula in Lake Victoria which renders it favour- 

 able for extensive breeding studies. Annual reports are published. 



Turning to West Africa, Sir F. A. Stockdale visited Nigeria, the 

 Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone during 1935-6, and his report (1936) 

 gives a full account of the organization for different branches of 

 agriculture in those territories. 



