336 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
PIONEER WORK IN NIGERIA : THE SOKOTO GARDENS. 
By Rose Lamartine Yates, L.C.C., F.R.H.S. 
Some five years ago in Sokoto, a small north-westerly station in the 
Northern Provinces of Nigeria, on the west coast of Africa, was sown 
the seed of a great endeavour. 
The European community at that time consisted of some dozen 
persons, and the Medical Officer, Dr. Bernard Moiser, realizing 
from previous experience how greatly their health would benefit by 
the introduction of green vegetables into their dietary, conceived the 
idea of making a garden there as he had in other stations. It seemed 
an unrealizable dream. Not only was the climate unfavourable, 
but there were no tools, no labour, no suitable ground. 
Sokoto is about 13° north of the Equator and 5° east of Greenwich. 
The climate is tropical, and has fairly well-defined seasons. The rainy 
season lasts from April till the end of September, the rest of the year 
sees scarcely a drop of rain. The total rainfall for the year averages 
25 inches, distributed thus : April, i ; May, 2 ; June, 4 ; July, 6-5 ; 
August, 8*5 ; September, 3. 
The advent of the rainy season is heralded by violent tornados, 
or dust-storms, during which a few drops only of rain fall, and the 
landscape is obliterated by volumes of dust, driven sky-high by the 
force of the gale. It is interesting to watch the approach of the first 
tornado of the year. A slight rumble is heard far away in the east, 
then a low sandy cloud is seen gradually rising from the horizon. 
It grows rapidly until one seems to see approaching a solid wall of 
sandstone cut into great rifts, as if carved out by torrents of water. 
Then in a moment, from complete calm and bright sunshine, one 
stands enveloped in a hurricane of fine dust and sand. The sun is 
blotted out, one can only see a few yards and runs for shelter to escape 
the stinging storm. A fortnight may intervene before another such, 
then they become more frequent, until in July and August the rain 
falls in heavy downpours, lasting a couple of hours or more — every 
three or four days — usually in the evening, but sometimes till day- 
light. One storm yielded in three hours a rainfall of 4-5 inches ! 
Between the storms fine sunny weather prevails, not unlike a 
hot English summer, but the humidity registers 75 to 80 per cent., 
and falls to 20 per cent, in the dry season of January to March. After 
the rains there is a short hot season, lasting well into November, when 
the wind, which has been S.W. all through the rains, suddenly changes 
to N.E., and remains at this point till the end of March, when it reverts 
to S.W. A cold season sets in with the change of wind ; at Christmas 
the nights are quite cold, the heat returning with the March S.W. 
winds, and becoming more and more intense as April yields to May, 
