SOIL EROSION — HALL 315 



token currency for the purchase of native livestock, something that 

 might be made a visible display of wealth and status. 



Even more fundamental must be the education of the natives to 

 adopt a conservative system of farming — a rotation that would 

 include leguminous crops and so help the native dietary as well as 

 restore nitrogen to the soil. Compost making is another method of 

 maintaining fertility which is being taught to the natives. The 

 African cannot increase, cannot even maintain, his present numbers 

 unless he learns how to use his plot of land so that it will continuously 

 produce food. Demonstrations have shown how it can be done, but 

 it will need both a strengthening of the agricultural staff and years of 

 effort before the improved practices are taken up. 



But it is difficult to speak temperately of the urgent need for effort 

 in this direction on a large scale. Many of the tribes are on the verge 

 of starvation, the desert is growing apace, and as the cropping or 

 grazing area shrinks, the pressure upon it becomes greater and 

 destruction proceeds at a compound-interest rate. 



The responsibility for action lies not only on the colonial govern- 

 ments but on the British Government itself. It has declared itself 

 trustee for the native populations; it must save them from them- 

 selves. Other nations are demanding colonies in Africa as sources 

 of raw materials and as openings for colonization, but as soon as one 

 gets away from the few mineral areas, African land affords little 

 opportunity of exploitation and will indeed only continue to exist 

 productively if its overlords adopt and persist in a self-denying policy 



