344 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



crease in production has resulted. During 1935 a native adminis- 

 tration rice multiplication area was established at Mwabogole on 

 the shore of Lake Victoria, where spacing experiments and strain 

 trials are made. Selection work is also in progress at the experi- 

 mental station at Mpanganya, Rufiji (Tanganyika 1936, D.R.) and 

 improved strains of rice are now in cultivation. In Northern Nyasa- 

 land a survey of the local rices was made during 1930-2, and the 

 results are published in a bulletin issued by the department of 

 agriculture (Barker 1934). 



In Kenya the rice production of the Tana River area has been 

 greatly improved by the elimination of many varieties and the 

 retention of a limited number sufficient to m.eet the needs of vary- 

 ing soil conditions while supplying the type of rice in local demand. 



In the French colonies, R. Porteres (1935) has made a study of 

 native rices and the methods used in their cultivation in the north- 

 west part of the Ivory Coast. Rice-growing enters into the pro- 

 gramme of irrigated agriculture in the neighbourhood of the River 

 Niger in the French Sudan. 



With regard to wheats the noteworthy breeding work which has 

 revolutionized the industry in Europe, North America, and 

 Australia has not yet proved of much value in Africa, since it 

 appears that strains suitable to African conditions must be locally 

 produced. Various aspects of wheat cultivation are studied in 

 South Africa, and the genetic work on disease-resistant strains in 

 progress at the Stellenbosch-Elsenburg College of Agriculture 

 deserves special mention. Experiments with rotation, cultivation, 

 and sowing methods are carried out at the Langgewens cereal 

 experiment station, and the effect of different fertilizers on quality 

 has also been investigated. Rotation trials of wheat with fodder 

 crops are in progress at Jongensklip, and experiments in wheat 

 cultivation under irrigation have been made at Hartebeestepoort. 

 Dr. Burton in Kenya has been studying wheat and maize during 

 the past ten years or so, and has obtained valuable results on 

 breeding. Several suitable wheats, some of which are resistant to 

 the two principal rusts prevalent in Kenya, have been evolved and 

 are already in cultivation. 



