WATTLE GROWING IN B.E.A. 



EARLY Black wattle seems to have been introduced into 



EFFORTS. this country some fourteen or fifteen years ago, and 



to have been planted in vatious districts in the 

 Highlands. About the earliest records we have are 

 analysis of bark from trees planted in 1903 in the 

 Kikuyu district and on the Aberdares, followed by 

 others from Njoro, Londiani, Limuru, Kyambu and 

 other places — all of which tended to shew that the 

 percentage of tannin obtainable from B.E.A. bark 

 was as high if not higher than from that produced in 

 Natal and other wattle growing centres; but that the 

 higher altitudes — from 6,500 to 7,500 — owing to the 

 greater rainfall gave the best results. On the 

 strength of these analysis land owners were encour- 

 aged to plant up areas with wattle, and in the years 

 1911-1913, a considerable acreage was put under this 

 crop. 



SETBACKS. 



Then followed one of those setbacks so fre- 

 quently met with in the histories of new countries. 

 Coffee planting came to the fore and ousted wattle 

 from popular favour. Difficulties in harvesting and 

 disposing of the bark began to shew themselves, and 

 while efforts to cope with these were still incomplete, 

 war broke out, with consequent disorganisation of 

 shipping, and increased freights, making it im- 

 possible to ship bark at a profit. As a result wattle 

 has been under a cloud in B.E.A. during the past 

 two years, but the writer is among those who believe 

 that the difficulties hitherto experienced are of a 

 temporary nature, and that when these are over- 

 come very much more attention will be given to 

 wattle and the happy owners of plantations will be 

 amongst the envied ones of the land — having less 

 trouble from disease or labour than any other 

 branch of agriculturalists in the country. 



A SOUND 

 SUGGESTION. 



The present world-wide upheaval has been 

 disastrous to trade in many directions, but the writer 

 believes it v^dll prove the salvation of the wattle 

 industry because of having brought home to govern- 

 ment and dependent industries a realization of the 

 grip Germany had obtained over it, and of the 

 necessity for producing the extract in the country of 

 origin so as to reduce the cost to the lowest possible 

 limits. If this is done in East Africa, as in Natal, 



(U 



