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In my flower garden I grow the most beautiful roses I 

 ever saw. There is not a day in the year that I am without 

 their blooms; also all the old English garden perennials, 

 annuals, etc. Passiflora edulis and its cousin P. trifasciata cover 

 my house and mixed up with it are Mandevilla suaveolens and Cobaea 

 scandens , the latter though with very much larger flowers 

 than I ever raised in either Virginia or Devonshire. 



"We have 250 acres in black wattle, Acacia decurrens . It 

 is now just 3 years old and is 30 feet high. In another 

 year we shall cut it and strip the bark which is used for 

 tanning in Europe. Sisal hemp is a great industry here, the 

 fibre of Agave rigida var. sisala?ia . It is used for cordage, 

 but of course you grow it in Florida so know all about it. 

 Among other things that we grow here, but at different 

 elevations, are coffee, wheat, rubber, cotton, cocoanuts, 

 mangoes, and in live stock, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, 

 ostriches . 



"The dasheen, by the way, has been grown here by the 

 natives from long before the coming of the white man. They 

 call it Miwoo pronounced meewo. One tribe called Kikuyus 

 are never without it. It would be interesting to know how 

 it came here, but of course the native knows nothing of his 

 history and cares nothing. Unlike the tribes of south and 

 central African savages, these of East Africa have no re- 

 ligion or superstitions. They worship one god which they 

 call Tumbo and it means their stomach. The only thought 

 they have beyond that is how to acquire as many wives as 

 possible. Natives use a nickname for everybody; they never 

 learn one's real name but name one according to any pecul- 

 iarity they may have. 



"The agricultural tribes are great farmers. Their 

 methods are those of the stone age. The women do all the 

 work; the men hunt, drink, steal, and stand around naked 

 and discuss the value of the goats, sheep and cattle which 

 they barter for more wives. The amount of maize grown and 

 exported by just one tribe, the Kavirondo who live along 

 the shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza, is astonishing. Another 

 tribe raises quantities of beans, peas and potatoes. Today 

 I have stood on top of a great hill on this farm, 10000 

 feet high, but only about 1500 feet above the surrounding 

 table land, and looked down through field glasses into Lake 

 Victoria 80 miles away to the west, Kilimanjaro 19000 feet 

 high away to the southeast, over to Lakes Rudolf and Bar- 

 ingo to the north, and German East Africa 30 miles to the 

 south. At the foot of the hill great herds of antelope 

 .and countless zebra graze. I have caught some of the zebra 

 foals and intend when they are fully grown to cross them 

 with my Somali pony stallion. 



