438 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



for alleviating overgrazing, aim principally at the establishment of 

 meat factories to dispose of all poorly conditioned animals. For 

 East Africa, the reports of the Agricultural Commission under Sir 

 Daniel Hall (Kenya 1929), and the Land Commission under Sir 

 Morris Carter (Kenya 1934) both lay special emphasis on this 

 matter, and as a means of reducing stock, taxation is suggested, 

 though neither report makes this a definite recommendation. To 

 meet the indifference of the native to money and his traditional 

 attachment to livestock. Sir Daniel Hall (1936) put forward the 

 suggestion in his Heath Clark lectures, that the purchases of cattle 

 for meat factories might be met by the issue of a large coin or token 

 stamped with the image of a bull, of the nominal value of ;^2, and 

 of a smaller los. token for sheep. As he points out, the suggestion 

 may sound fantastic but the situation it is designed to meet is 

 also fantastic. 



In Tanganyika the redistribution of population from the foci 

 to the peripheries of the grazing areas has been considered by the 

 animal husbandry, tsetse research and other departments. Until 

 new permanent sources of water-supply for man and beast 

 are made available, it will be impossible to make such redistribu- 

 tion permanent, but meanwhile it appears that rotational grazing 

 could be established in many areas by inducing the pastoralists 

 to leave their foci for six months each year, during the wet seasons. 

 The six months' complete rest which the home pastures would 

 thereby receive, is considered sufficient to enable them to recuper- 

 ate enough to withstand grazing during the dry season. Since the 

 average annual rainfall in the greater part of the territory is 

 twenty inches, it should be possible, by means of shallow dams, to 

 conserve sufficient water to maintain stock during the rainy season 

 on what is now uninhabitable savannah or grassland. Experiments 

 carried out with the co-operation of the department of tsetse 

 research during 1933-4 showed that these methods were successful 

 on a small scale (Staples 1934, D.R.), but difficulties such as the 

 clearing of fly from infested areas, and the disinclination of owners 

 to send cattle away when grazing is available in the neighbour- 

 hood, have yet to be overcome. It has been suggested that a system 

 of communal ownership controlled by tribal grazing rules might 

 solve the last-mentioned problem. A large-scale practical attempt 



