Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-10-15

III his farming methods. For exam
pie, in order that his crops may grow
well he holds big beer drink and
dance to certain spirits. When he
plants his corn he scatters corn cobs
where the path from his house joins
the main path, that the spirits in
passing may see them and be pleased
and so make his corn grow we'll l
have seen many heaps of peanut
shells in the paths that were placed
there to win the good will of the
spirits. If anything goes wrong with
his crops it is the spirits who are to
blame, when, if he had only followed
a few simple rules of farming, every
thing would have gone all right. If
member of his family dies this
death is caused by the spirit that in
habits that particular garden, and at
once he tears down his home and
moves to another location.
The logical way to reach these peo-
pie is through the boys and girls
who are studying in our schools, but
with our present equipment we can
not hope to properly train these
! pupils. We should have an adequate
ly equipped educational plant. We
are in sorry need of tools and machin-
/ cry, and housing facilities for ma
chinery, livestock and farm products
At present we have no equipment
shed so that wagons, plows, and 9TH
er implements are exposed to the ele-
ments. We have over two hundred
head of cattle. About one-fourth of
them are oxen and the rest are
scrub native cattle of very inferior
breed. All these cattle are housed
in a shed so feet long and 16 feet
wide, which affords very little pro-
lection from marauding lions. We
should have new barn for our cat
tie. The future development of the
natives agriculturally will be in live
stock, since they are so far removed
from marketing facilities. We as a
mission should procure some pure
bred stock and assist them in devel-
oping their agricultural opportuni-
ties. All this, as you can guess, will
require money. The Rhodesian gov
eminent is behind us in our enter
prise but their assistance will not be
adequate. l have prepared a syl-
labus of proposed work to be carried
out at Mt. Silinda and upon submit
ting this syllabus to the educational
authorities we were assured that as
soon as this schedule is gotten under
way they will give us yearly grant
OF 225 pounds English money! to
be used for educational purposes by
the agricultural department of the
school. If we can but carry out our
proposed work among these people
whose lives are dependent upon the
tilling of the soil we shall do much
to hasten the winning of these thou
sands of heather souls to Christ.
1t is surprising how little they
really know. l find that l must rely
entirely upon illustrative material in
the classroom, for they must have
everything in the concrete form be-
fore they can understand.
For industrial work besides the
necessary preparation of gardens,
have started the boys to building an
equipment shed of stone, for the
rainy season is near and it seems
pity to let what equipment we have
lie exposed to the elemnts during an
other rainy season. AS soon as funds
are available we must build barn.
This barn should have facilities for
storing hay and should be comple;
ed before the next dry season if pos
cattle Craze the year around with no
supplementary food and during the
dry season the grass is so poor that
some of them starve and few die.
We should have a moving ma
chine for at certain times of the year
we have an abundance of green grass
that if cut would make excellent hay.
Rev. King brought out a checkrow
corn planter, corn cultivator and
broadcast seeder several years ago.
1t must have cost considerable money
to get his machinery out to the mis-
sion field, but it has never been used
and some of it was still Grated for
it can not be used with our native
trained oxen. We should have
team of mules for operating this ma
chinery and for doing other light
work, which they could do much
more expediently and economically
than oxen can do it. A stump puller
is also necessary. This should be
purchased for the whole mission
Grubbing stumps by native labor is
slow and expensive work. DR.. Law
renee at the Gogoyo station estimates