PART II. TS 
The present Plant Breeder was appointed in 1921. A breeding 
station was erected near Nairobi where wheats are bred for resistance 
to Puccinia graminis. Great progress has been made with this work 
and many useful types, of from four months to six months maturity 
time, and resistant to Puccinia graminis, are now pure and ready for 
multiplication. ~~ Unfortunately most of them are susceptible to 
Puccinia triticina, but by a further cross it is hoped to rectify this 
in time. Many of the types now being grown near Nairobi will have 
to be trans‘erred to a breeding station in the Rongai Valley as they 
take about six months to mature, and would be useful for that and 
other similar districts. There is fortunately one, though only one, 
variety of wheat in the country immune to Puccinia graminis. This 
variety is called Red Egyptian, and is immensely useful as a parent 
for crosses. 
Another breeding station was erected at Njoro at an altitude of 
7,000 feet. Here wheats are bred for resistance both to Puccinia 
graminis and Puccinia glumarum. Fortunately at any rate one 
variety, Equator, is resistant to Puccinia glumarum and can be used 
as the other parent for a cross with Red Egyptian. Unfortunately 
both are long maturing wheats and so early maturity will have to be 
achieved by further crosses of early maturing wheats with some of the 
progeny of the Equator and Red Egyptian cross. The breeding work 
at Njoro is progressing fairly favourably and useful types resistant to 
both rusts are now segregating out. =~ Wheats which appear resistant 
to Puccinia glumarum and Puccinia graminis are further tested for 
resistance to Puccinia glumarum at higher atitudes. 
In addition to the two breeding stations there are six varietal 
testing stations. As the work progresses, it is becoming increasingly 
difficult to manage and it may become necessary, unless further staff 
is provided, to confine the activities of the Plant Breeding Branch, 
insofar as wheat breeding is concerned, to producing wheats suitable 
for lower altitudes only, leaving the higher altitudes to look after 
themselves. Considering the distances separating them, four 
breeding stations is rather a tall order for the present meagre staff to 
cope with. 
It will be realised by now that wheat simply cannot be grown 
in the Colony until the rust problem is solved. In order that farmers 
should not have to wait ten years after the arrival of the present 
Plant Breeder before they had rust-resistant wheats to grow, some 
500 selections were made from the mixtures of wheats left behind by 
the previous Plant Breeder. An exhaustive trial of them has been 
made all over the country for five years. The result of these trials 
shows that Equator is the only wheat which can be grown at altitudes 
above 7,500 feet, it being resistant to Puccinia glumarum but 
susceptible to Puccinia graminis. And Kenya Governor—issued for 
the first time last year—is the only wheat which can be grown at 
altitudes below 7,000 feet, being highly resistant to puccinia graminis, 
but susceptible to Puccinia glumarum. There is no wheat as yet, in 
sufficient quantity for issue for altitudes of 7,000 feet except Durum 
wheats such as Golden Ball and Groot Korn. 
Farmers who grow any variety of wheat other than the two 
mentioned are running a grave risk of losing their crop through rust. 
Equator should not be grown below 7,500 feet nor Kenya Governor 
above 7,000 feet. Both these wheats are capable of yielding 10 bags 
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