THE SOTIK. 



nnHAT portion of the Sotik country which has been situation. 



open to settlement for some years is confined 

 to a narrow belt of 5,000 acre holdings lying about 

 50 miles south of Kericho and south of the Lmnbwa 

 Reserve, bordering on the Chepalungu Forest and the 

 Indanai Hills. It is only in recent years that any 

 serious effort has been made to settle the district : 

 since 191 2, when the farmers with the help of a 

 financial grant from Government constructed a wagon 

 road from Kericho to Sotik Post, a distance of 50 

 miles, and two branch roads bridging close on twenty 

 rivers and streams in the task. 



Like most other parts of the country with an CLIMATE, 

 altitude of 6,000 feet, the cHmate is dehghtfully 

 healthy and bracing. The average annual rainfall 

 since 191 1 has been 51 inches, spread over 1S5 days in 

 the year. Even during the heaviest rainy season it 

 is seldom that any falls before the afternoon, which 

 greatly facihtates work. 



The country was originally surveyed for grazing STOCK raising, 

 farms, but the district being an endemic East Coast 

 Fever area, and so far removed from the Railway, as 

 to make the cost of building and maintaining dips 

 very difficult, comparatively little attention has been 

 given to stock. The native herds shew of what the 

 country is capable. Trek oxen from the Sotik are 

 in keen demand among the European settlers through- 

 out the Highlands, being strong, hardy animals, and 

 they provide evidence of the suitability of the country 

 for stock raising on a large and progressive scale. At 

 present, while the fanners are developing their coffee 

 plantations, the grazing is mostly left to the herds of 

 the native workers. 



Occurring in strips and patches and bordering the COFFEE, 

 streams, are areas of good arable soil of deep red and 

 chocolate loams, suitable for a great variety of crops, 

 including coffee. Three or four coffee plantations are 

 now coming into bearing, and the vigorous appearance 

 of the trees and the heavy crops are sufficient evidence 

 of the suitability of the soil and climatic conditions. 

 No disease of any kind has made its appearance, and 

 the ample sunlight and cold nights will probably 

 keep off any danger of that kind. Some of the 



HI 



