7 PART IT. 
We may say we have a population of two and a half million 
natives. Of this two and a half millions, half a million are computed 
to be men of working age, but on account of disabilities we cannot 
expect more than 870,000 will be available. Of this number one half 
or 185,000 is given as a maximum figure available to-day at one time 
for work in the Colony. 
It is obvious whatever else we may do that we should endeavour 
to fill up the empty spaces in our reserves with people, that we should 
educate them in hygiene, in the production of foodstuffs in those 
agricultural arts which are required when the pressure of population 
becomes too great for a pastoral system to support. In former times 
we saw the great treks made by people who wished to get away from 
restraint. To-day the native areas being delimited, escape cannot be 
made in this way so that the human being has to accommodate 
himself and his system. 
Now why should we develop field husbandry? Agriculturists are, 
generally speaking, a fixed population. They are easier therefore to 
administer. The products of field husbandry may be marketed in the 
raw state or by a simple industrial process such as ginning; they may 
be rendered more suitable for transport and for marketing. The 
capital required to produce one shilling’s worth of surplus produce 
from field husbandry is but a tithe of that required to produce the 
same surplus from animal husbandry. Field husbandry, properly 
managed, results in a surplus of foodstuffs, fixed abode, civilisation 
for the mass. With field husbandry enough animal husbandry may be 
carried on to supply the wants of the farmers and that without very 
much interference with their agricultural activities. In Kenya 
especially field husbandry was encouraged because the machinery for 
marketing was ready to hand. The marketing of the products of 
animal husbandry, save of the skins and hides, requires special equip- 
ment because the material is very perishable. The speed of 
development of field husbandry is great. of animal husbandry slow. 
Tar Neeps oF THE NATIVE AricuLTurist: These may best be 
revealed by describing what he lacks. 
The seed of the crops he grows is lacking in vitality, it is impure 
in that it does not breed true and it is generally a mixture. He is 
addicted to the growing of crops like grasses producing a starchy small 
seed resembling bird seed. He lacks a variety of crops of some 
sustaining power; there are many food crops but he balances his 
ration rather badly. 
He lacks the fundamental knowledge of how to prepare land, his 
agricultural work generally being very slipshod. The European is 
wrongly accused of having become possessed of the best land in Kenya. 
He knows how to use land in comparison with the native who 
possesses as good or even better land in many parts yet fails to secure 
the acre yields the European can grow, and it is this difference in the 
use of land which has blinded observers 
The native lacks a sufficiently great incentive for him to amend 
his methods and to produce a large surplus. Wants being few and 
the varied produce of the land so bounteous together with the ever 
open door of work outside the reserves makes him but a casual 
producer, lacking in energy. 
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