

CHAPTER XIII 



WHEAT, MAIZE, COFFEE 



Wheat has been in the past both a considerable 

 success and a considerable disappointment, and to what 

 extent the amount to be exported will increase is at 

 the present moment a matter of doubt. But for one 

 drawback, the crop in certain districts is eminently 

 desirable. It is cheap to sow and to harvest, and with 

 the use of modern machinery requires comparatively 

 little native labour. The crop under normal conditions 

 is a heavy one, and is readily disposed of either at 

 Nairobi for local consumption or for export. The 

 great deterrent, as in many other parts of the world, 

 is rust, which to a greater or lesser degree has attacked 

 every one of the hundred varieties of wheat experi- 

 mented with. 



Njoro, on Lord Delamere's and the neighbouring 

 estates, has been the chief centre of the wheat-growing 

 industry, there being some 5,000 acres under wheat in 

 the neighbourhood of the station. The course of 

 wheat-growing in this district has run somewhat as 

 follows. The first areas ploughed up were planted 

 with two or three different varieties of wheat, of which 

 "Gluyas" formed the principal. The first crops were 

 excellent, in some cases more than 30 bushels to the 



