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African farmers in Kenya differ in their farming practice in many ways, dependent upon their tribe, the type of land they till and the crops they cultivate. Nearly all though are careless of the needs of the soil, ignorant of the balance between the land and the people and the animals it supports. Few have much idea of the use of manure. Land is cropped until it is worn out, fragmentation of fields continues until the unlucky ones can only use uneconomically small scattered gardens. In an effort to teach individual farmers a wiser use of their land, in the hope that the example might lead others to follow their methods, the Government of Kenya has encouraged a number of Africans in heavily populated districts to farm small holdings. At one Agricultural Training School a series of small mixed farms are run each under a group of three or four apprentices who have to grow their own food and submit their programmes for their own crop rotations for approval; they must also put these into practice, and raise food for their stock to supplement the pasture which they must fence. Paddocking even is new to the African; growing food for his cattle is utterly alien. Mixed farms and small holdings are most numerous in the Kiambu, Fort Hall and Nyeri districts of Kenya inhabited by Kikuyu. This picture was taken on the farm of Leonard Githui, an enlightened Kikuyu farmer. Picture shows:- Splitting firewood; a common enough job to western eyes, but in Africa this is women's work. Leonard doesn't agree. His wife has plenty to do keeping the household running and bringing up the children.
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