Zambezia (1992), XIX (i).THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORDIN THE MAZOWE VALLEYA. G. DAVISE. D. ALVORD WAS AN American agricultural missionary whose success atthe Mount Selinda Mission led to his being appointed 'Agriculturalist forInstruction of the Natives' in 1926. His idea of training African demonstratorsto teach African farmers was adopted by the government, and thosedemonstrators who were to serve in Mashonaland were trained at theDomboshawa Government School. There Alvord planted a series of cropswhich demonstrated the success of a particular four-course rotation, thedetails of which, together with eight photographs, were published in1928.1 The four-course rotation was:Year 1: Maize fertilized with kraal manure.Year 2: Maize or sorghum, no manure.Year 3: Groundnuts, beans or other legumes.Year 4: Rapoko (finger millet).After four years a short fallow period during which the land was cultivatedwas desirable to control weeds.Experiment and later experience showed that at least one head ofcattle was required to provide sufficient manure to keep an acre (0,404 ha)of arable land in good heart. The integration of stock and crops to feed thefamily on a permanent site would replace the shifting agriculture of thepast. The other features of Alvord's programme were demonstration,persuasion and land-use planning across the country. They were summar-ized in two reports by himself, one printed,2 the other in typescript.3This article deals with his work and that of his staff in the MazoweValley. A brief description of the Mazowe Valley and Alvord's associationwith early afforestation schemes in the Reserves was published in anearlier issue of Zambezia* In mid-1927 a farming demonstrator calledPaulos commenced working at Manomano, Makombachoto, Nyanukonda,Musere, Negomo, Chakuchichi and Gweshe in the Chiweshe Reserve under1 E. D. Alvord, 'Sand veld farming and Its possibilities', Rhodesia Agricultural Journal(1928), XXV, 1106.2 [Southern Rhodesia,] 'Ann[ual] Rep[ort of the] Director of] Native Agric[ulture for theYear] 1946', in Rep. Secretary of] Native Aff[air]s, Chief Native Cornm[issioner] and Dir. NativeDevelopment] 1946 (Sessional] Pap[er], C.S.R. 48, 1947), 37-55.3 E. D. Alvord, 'Development of Native Agriculture and Land Tenure in Southern Rhodesia'4 A. G. Davis, 'Afforestation in the Mazowe Valley", Zambezia (1988), XV, 119-36.4748THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYAlvord's direction.5 In the 1927/8 season Paulos had eight plots totallingeight acres (3,2 ha) giving an average yield of 5,5 bags per acre (1 233kg/ha) of grain with 9,6 bags (2 152 kg) on the best plot (see Table I),Table IYIELDS OF GRAIN FROM DEMONSTRATION PLOTS IN FIVE RESERVESDURING SIX SEASONSReserve1927/8Chlweshe1928/9Chlweshe1934/5ChinamoraBushuMadziwaMsana1935/6ChinamoraBushuMadziwaMsana1936/7BushuMadziwaMsana1937/8ChiwesheBushuMsanaArea plantedacres (ha)8,09,021,523,59,57,028,08,510,011,510,516,518,08,018,016,5(3,2)(3,6)(8,6)(9,4)(3,8)(2,8)(11,3)(3,4)(4,4)(4,6)(4,2)(6,6)(7,2)(3,2)(7,2)(6,6)Numberof plots8_-38191718192723103628Average yieldbags/acre (kg/ha)5,57,26,410,47,110,116,414,917,016,711,610,022,812,79,815,8(1,233)(1 614)(1 434)(2 331)(1 591)(2 264)(3 676)(3 340)(3 984)(3 744)(2 600)(2 242)(5 111)(2 847)(2 197)(3 542)Yield on best plotbags/acre (kg/ha)9,614--231829352028(2 152)--(5 156)(4 035)(6 501)(7 847)(4 484)(6 277)Although the names of crops grown were not recorded the best yields were obviously maize.Sources: Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1928 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 13,1929), 20; Rep. Chief Native Comm1929 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 14,1930), 80; Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1935 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 7, 1936),23; Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1936 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 9,1937), 29; Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1937(Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 7,1938), 27; Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1938 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 20, 1939), 43.5 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1927(Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 18, 1928), 19-20.A. G. DAVIS 49compared with an average of 2,6 bags (582 kg/ha) outside his plots.6Rainfall at the Salvation Army's Howard Institute nearby was 26,96 inches(684 mm) over 61 days in that season.7 In the following year the plots wereincreased to nine acres (3,6 ha) in total and gave an average yield of 7,2bags (1 614 kg/ha) compared with one bag (224 kg/ha) 'on Native lands'.8The rainfall that season was 29,91 inches (759 mm) over 75 days.9 In hisreport contained within that of the Director of Native Development Alvordstated that Paulos had given sixteen lectures and castrated three scrub-stock in the 1928/9 season. His report also contained a map on a scale of1: 2 000 000 showing demonstration work on native Reserves, indicatingwhere demonstrators were located and where demonstrators were intraining for location in 1930, 1931 and 1932, among them being a demon-strator for Chiweshe in 1931 and Madziwa in 1932.10Alvord's lectures and demonstrations stressed the importance of seedselection, the adoption of new varieties, the planting of crops in rows withcorrect spacing instead of scattering the seed to enable clean weeding, themaking of compost and the use of kraal manure. Selective breeding ofstock and an explanation of why dipping was compulsory were also part ofhis instruction.In 1930 the inclusion of Alvord's report in that of the Director of NativeDevelopment was 'precluded owing to expenditure involved',11 and simi-larly, because of the world depression, demonstration work appears tohave ceased in Chiweshe during the seven years subsequent to 1937. Anadded reason was perhaps the serious outbreak of smallpox in the Mazowedistrict in 1930 with eighteen deaths among a large number of cases,12 andthis may have diverted his limited staff to elsewhere in the Valley. Certainlyhe had demonstration centres in Chinamora, Bushu and Madziwa in 193313and in Msana in 1934,14 probably on light soils although his reports omitthat information. Yields from his plots in Chinamora, Bushu, Madziwa andMsana are shown in Table I. Not included in his report were the yieldsobtained by Africans from their gardens nearby nor the actual cropsgrown in his plots.In 1935 Alvord reported that 'soil erosion damage is increasing rapidly6 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1928, 20i7 Meteorological Rep. for the Year Ended 30th June, 1928, by the Dep[artmen]t [of] Agric.(Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 25, 1929), 21.8 Rep. Dir. Native Dev. 1929 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 13, 1930), 81.9 Meteorological Rep. for the Year Ended 30th June, 1929 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 6,1930), 23.10 Rep. Dir. Native Dev. 1929, 80.11 Rep. Dir. Native Dev. 1930 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 11,1931), 28.12 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1930 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 11,1931), 3.13 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1933 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 9,1934), 15.14 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1934 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 8,1935), 12.50 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYon Reserves throughout the country... [the] usual square or rectangularplot must be changed to plots laid out on contours with terracing, stripcropping and vegetative control'.15 This advice was adopted in the followingyear, 1936, when a soil conservation officer, K. J. MacKenzie, was ap-pointed.16 MacKenzie commenced a soil conservation project in BushuReserve and pegged out 10 000 yards (9 140 m) of contour lines, engageda gang of labourers who completed 2 880 yards (2 632 m) of contour bankstogether with 2 360 yards (2 157 m) of storm drains protecting some 50acres (42,4 ha) of land.17 He developed a standard contour ridge of 18inches (45 cm) with an average gradient of one foot (30,4 cm) fall in 400feet (121,9 m) which was adopted on seven projects in the Reserves in1937.18 By the end of 1938, 846 acres (342 ha) of land in Bushu had beenprotected through the use of 59 500 yards (54 383 m) of contours and16 700 yards (15 263 m) of storm drains at a cost of 6s. 8d. per acre (0,404ha). This area was only 2,5 per cent of the total area of the Reserve.19In the 1935/6 season Alvord's demonstration plots were again verysuccessful (Table I),20 although the rainfall in the Valley was low, forexample 23,11 inches (587 mm) at Bindura.21He also had an experimentalcrop of cotton in Bushu producing a 'promising crop'. The average cashprice paid on the spot for 'good middling' cotton was Il4d. per lb;22 thenearest ginnery was in Bindura. The yields of the grain plots in the 1936/7season were extremely good (see Table I), but regrettably he did not recordif they were from new lands or old ones in which his rotation scheme hadbeen adopted. Cotton seed was supplied to one grower who was paid Id.per lb. for his crop.23In the next season, 1937/8, Alvord achieved a maximumof 35 bags per acre (7 847 kg/ha)24 in Chiweshe (see Table I) when at theHoward Institute nearby the rainfall was 33,5 inches (851 mm).25 In the1937/8 season all the plot yields were well above the average for thels Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1935,30. Rep. Comm. to Enquire into the Preservation, etc., of theNatural Resources of the Colony (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 40,1939), 18. It should be noted that a decadeearlier soil erosion had become so serious on some European farms In the Valley that theirowners commenced building contour banks. By 1938 some 57 640 acres (23 286 ha) of theirarable land in the Mazowe district had been protected.16 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1936, 27.17 Ibid., 35.18 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1937, 31.19 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1938,45.20 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1936, 29.21 Rainfall Handbook Supplement No. 2 (Salisbury, Dept. Meteorological Services, 1952),N5.22 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1936, 31.23 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1937, 27-8.24 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1938, 43.25 Metereological Rep. for the Year Ended 30th June, 1938 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 6, 1939), 12.A. G. DAVIS 51district, which was 2 bags per acre (448 kg/ha).26 Plot yields, however, arealways much higher than field yields, often up to 20 per cent more, evenwithout the ravages of baboons and wild pigs in the fields which are notuncommon in the Reserves. In 1939 the Report of the Chief Native Commis-sioner contained only an abstract of Alvord's work in the country and noinformation about the Mazowe District is included in it.Alvord's soil conservation programme continued in 1940 (see Table IIfor details of the programme in Chiweshe and Bushu Reserves):27 for thecountry as a whole he reported that it was a 'most successful season ofdemonstration work'.28 Also in 1940 he commenced his 'school on wheels'touring African areas.29 This was a single American railway carriage whichwas pulled from station to station by passing trains. Farmers and theirwives would gather at the station to hear talks by an agricultural officer,see lantern slides and inspect pots of plants and other exhibits. Part of thesuccess of this extension method was due to some of the farmers' wiveswho were former schoolteachers. They read about the new methods inthe leaflets handed out by the officer and prodded their husbands intoadopting these methods.Table IITHE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ALVORD'S SOIL CONSERVATION PROJECT IN THEMAZOWE VALLEY RESERVES, 1940Contour ridges constructed Storm drains constructed Area protectedyards (m) yards (m) acres (ha)Chiweshe 55 178 (50 432) 18 862 (17 239) 525(212)Bushu 21100 (19 285) - - 294(119)Alvord, despite being able to drive his small truck-load of exhibits intothe Reserves, faced a deeply conservative, almost hostile people. Some ofthe youngest boys had started school (but almost none of the girls becausethe chiefs opposed the formal education of their daughters30) but certainlynone of the older generation had any education. The rural population wasalso hostile because of the Maize Act (No. 6 of 1925), the Maize Control Act(No. 33 of 1931) and the Maize Amendment Act (No. 17 of 1934) which,26 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1938,12.27 Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1940 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 13, 1941), 25.28 Ibid., 35. » Ibid., 36.30 Nat[iona]I Archives of Zimbabwe, Harare], NSH [Native Dept., Native Comm. andAssistant Magistrate, Mazoe], 2/1/1 [Correspondence: General: 26 Apr. 1916 - 26 Nov. 1923],Native Comm. Mazoe to Archdeacon, Church House, Salisbury, 10 Nov. 1919.52 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYtogether with the regulations of the Maize Control Board, severely restrictedthe production and sale of maize grown by Africans in many parts of thecountry including the Mazowe Valley. These restrictions, along with theGreat Depression, imposed appalling hardships on the African families inthe Reserves. In 1931 the Chief Native Commissioner commented that itwas 'most trying for the native community',31 and in 1932 'natives in areasexempt from maize control received better prices generally averaging 7s.6d. compared with less than 4s. per bag inside the control area'.32The Mazoe Native Board in 1934 expressed its 'grave dissatisfaction'with the Maize Acts and also with the Cattle Levy Act (No. 9 of 1934),which increased slaughter fees from 2s. 6d. to 10s.33 Alvord opposed thispunitive legislation, expressing his views in his 1935 report:the greatest handicap to our effort to introduce better methods of tillage amongthe Reserve Native is the lack of marketing facilities. In many areas it is impossiblefor Natives to sell for cash, and they are forced to take salt or cloth for their grain,or they cannot sell it at all... [which] imposes a hand to mouth existence upon himunder which he cannot progress.34Fortunately in 1940 there was a 'strong demand for all classes ofagricultural products',35 with the Africans receiving a cash price of 6s. 6d.per bag for their maize delivered to the Control Board's depots on therailways. There was also a provision for a price equalization fund for thebenefit of the African grower.36In the previous year Alvord had commenced 'centralization' inChiweshe.37This was the result of an experiment conducted elsewhere in1929 involving the division of the Reserves into arable, grazing and forestryareas, with new permanent villages sited on the boundaries of the arablelands. Previously, when shifting cultivation was practised, villages weremoved to new sites when the nearby cultivated lands became exhausted.These new villages were intended to be permanent and were constructedalong a wide path or road with a school, a church, houses, grain bins,sanitation pits and even tree plantations. It was envisioned that landsfarmed under the four-year rotation scheme and fertilized by kraal manure31 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1931 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 7, 1932), 1.32 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1932 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 9, 1933), 5.33 Natl. Arch., S1542/N2 (Native Affs Dept., Chief Native Comm., Correspondence andOther Papers, General, 1914-43; Native Boards, 1931-9), vol. M, 'Minutes of Native BoardMeeting... Chiweshe Reserve, Mazoe District, 12th and 19th June, 1934'.34 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1935,31.35 Rep. Seer. Dep. Agric. and Lands, 1940 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 6, 1941), 2.36 Southern Rhodesia, 'Ann. Rep. of the Maize Control Board for the Financial Year 1939-40' (Sess. Pap.), 2.37 Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1940,4.A. G. DAVIS 53together with gardens and livestock would sustain the inhabitants. Initiallythe area was 4 acres (1,61 ha) but later, in the 1950s, eight acres (3,23 ha)of land was deemed to be the minimum necessary for an economic holdingin Chiweshe and that larger areas in low-rainfall regions would be required.38Centralization commenced in Masembura in 1943, in Madziwa in 1950 andin Msana in 1955 after Alvord had retired.39In 1941 Alvord's field staff for the whole country comprised 9 Europeantechnical officers and 110 African Agriculturalists and CommunityDemonstrators.40 Their achievements in the Mazowe Valley are listed inTable III. A tree plantation was also started in Chiweshe and in the followingyear the Forestry Officer noted that kraals in the southern portion ofChiweshe had been moved to permanent sites and that 'plantations ofEucalypts established in the past have been cut over and the timber usedfor building purposes'; these plantations had been established by theNative Commissioner in 1931, the history of which I have outlinedpreviously.41 Also in 1942 Miss Langham commenced a school on HasfaFarm on the western border of Chiweshe for the homecraft training ofAfrican women and girls.42 This, together with the Howard InstituteTable HITHE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ALVORD'S STAFF IN THE MAZOWE VALLEY IN 1941Chiweshe MsanaVillages laid outHouses improvedChurches and schools builtGrain bins constructedWater supplies improvedSanitary pits dug41191544611533682201-_38 'Native Land Husbandry Act: Minutes to Meeting of Assessment Committee [Appointedby the Minister in Terms of Section 4 of the Native Land Husbandry Act] for Chiweshe Reservein the Mazoe District', Sept. 1957.39 'Native Land Husbandry Act: Assessment Committee Report on Bushu Reserve: ShamvaSub-District', 22 July 1955; 'Minutes to Meeting of Assessment Committee ... for ChiwesheReserve in the Mazoe District', Aug. 1957; 'Minutes of Meeting of Assessment Committee... forMadziwa Reserve in the Shamva District', 11 Apr. 1957; 'Minutes to Meeting of AssessmentCommittee ... Msana Reserve in the Goromonzi District', 10 Nov. 1956.40 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1941', in Reps. Seer.Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 10,1947),35.41 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1942', in ibid., 89; Davis,'Afforestation in the Mazowe Valley', 124-5,42 'Rep. Dir. Native Education for the year 1943', in 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief NativeComm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1943", in ibid., 130.54 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYestablished in 1923 within the Reserve,43 provided additional schooling tothat provided in Alvord's new village schools.Alvord's 1943 report gives no information about the Reserves in theMazowe Valley but he does say that his 1 800 demonstration plots inMashonaland gave an average yield in excess of 10 bags per acre (2 242 kg/ha).44 In 1944 he was appointed to the newly created post of Director ofNative Agriculture and his technical staff was increased to 30 Europeansand 219 Africans.45 He reported an outstanding development in connectionwith agricultural extension work which deserved special mention.46 InMasembura the Assistant Native Commissioner Bindura 'has inducedseveral hundred native farmers to whom individual lands have beenallocated between contour ridges in areas protected by soil conservationworks, to put their lands under a systematic four-course rotation cropunder the supervision of the demonstrator with astonishing results'. Alsousing his experience with the Soil Survey Service in the United States47 hebegan the only large-scale systematic mapping of soils yet done in Africa.48During the four-month period December 1943 to March 1944, 247miles (396 km) of contours were built protecting 6 054 acres (2 445 ha) infour Reserves.49Details of soil conservation works in 1945 in Chiweshe andin Masembura are shown in Table IV. The contours being largely, if notentirely, constructed by hand labour, the total cost of the project was£2 280, or just under SI per acre (£2 8s./ha).MThe success of the extension work was confirmed in 1945 by theAssistant Native Commissioner Bindura, who reported:production of ground nuts continued to expand and in them the natives ofMasembura have found a good cash crop and a valuable one for use in a rotation... [it is] estimated that the natives in Masembura sold 1,123 bags of shelled nuts[101,856 kg] this year at an average price of 45s. per bag [90,7 kg], thus a total of52,531 was poured into the Reserve for groundnuts alone. This is a true benefit tothe natives especially when it is realized that five years ago few nuts were growneven for local consumption, let alone for sale. The experiment was started twoyears ago and included a system of compulsory crop rotation for natives . .43 Natl. Arch., NSH/2/1/1 Native Comm. Mazoe to Superintendent of Natives Salisbury 5Sept. 1923.44 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm., and Dir. Native Dev. 1943', in Reps Seer.Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, 138.45 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm., and Dir. Native Dev. 1944', in ibid., 190.45 Ibid., 191.47 H. Weinmann, Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Rhodesia 1924-1950(Salisbury, Univ. of Rhodesia, Series in Science 2, 1975), 207.48 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1944', in Reps Seer.Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, 193.49 Ibid, 199.511 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm., and Dir. Native Dev. 1945', in ibid., 234.A. G. DAVIS55cultivation in contour ridged areas has proved more satisfactory than anticipated.Natives themselves praise the system which now appears to have taken a firm holdexpanding every year and is accepted as a matter of routine. They readily admitthat, had they not been forced into the system, there would have been a shortageof food this year.51Soil conservation work in 1946 was similar in detail to that listed inTable IV for 1945. In Chiweshe the total area of land protected was 1 472acres (595 ha) costing £736 or 10s. per acre (SI 4s. 9d./ha). In Masemburathe figures were 726 acres (292 ha) costing £944 or 26s. per acre(£3 4s. 4d./ha), respectively.52The continuing success of Alvord's crop-rotation scheme and theproduction of groundnuts in Masembura was reported in 1947, as were'excellent results in soil conservation by the use of grass strips whichTable IVSOIL CONSERVATION WORK IN CHIWESHEAND MASEMBURA RESERVES IN 1945ChiwesheMasemburayards(m)yards(m)Demarcation of drainage channelwater courses 49 200Construction of contour ridges 39 800Planting of pasture furrowsConstruction of storm drainsConstruction of contourroad drains(44 900)(36 300)54 800 (50 000)30 50056 3004 50020 000(27 800)(51 400)(4 100)(18 200)11900 (10 800) 13 400 (12 200)Number of check dams constructedfor gully control1510260acres(ha)acres(ha)Area protectedLabour in man days1875 (757,5)22 000435,0 (157,7)10 800Sources: 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. 1945', in Reps. Seer. Native AHs and ChiefNative Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, 234.51 Ibid., 210.52 Rep. Sear. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. 1946 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 48, 1947), 46.56 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYincidentally cost nothing as no contour ridges are necessary'.53 In thatyear he had 11 staff in the Mazowe district, 1 European land developmentofficer, 1 supervisor and 9 demonstrators, 4 of whom were employed inagriculture, 3 in community work, 1 in forestry and 1 in soil conservation.They were responsible for 4 demonstration centres with 175 plots covering169,5 acres (68,4 ha) from which the average yield of grain was 13 bags peracre (2 914 kg/ha) and 40 bags of groundnuts were reaped from the trials.54Details of community demonstration work, livestock control andimprovement for 1947 and 1948 are set out in Table V.55 Four new plantationswere established on 18 acres (7,2 ha) and nursery beds were sown withgums and conifers in 1947.56 Soil conservation continued in 1947 with 123,2miles (196,9 km) of contour ridges, 7 100 yards (668 km) of storm drainsprotecting 1 495 acres (605,2 ha), costing 16s. per acre (SI 19s. 6d. perha).57 More information about soil conservation was given in the 1948Table VCOMMUNITY DEMONSTRATION WORK AND LIVESTOCK CONTROLIN THE MAZOWE DISTRICT IN 1947 AND 1948Villages laid outOne-room houses constructedConstruction of houses withmore than one roomGrain bins constructedSchools and churches builtCompost pits dugSanitary pits dugWater supplies improvedBulls selectedScrub bulls castratedYoung stock castratedSmall stock castratedDonkeys castratedVeterinary treatment was given to 217 animals1948.1947940855751264211290472274198in 1947 and1948768614778488189937095854_-to 266 animals inSources: Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1947 (Sess PapC.S.R. 20, 1948), 75, 76; Rep. Sear, Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev 1948(Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 27, 1949), 80, 83.53 Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1947, 8.54 Ibid., 73. 5» Ibid., 74.56 Ibid., 70. » Ibid., 81.A. G. DAVIS 57report.58 Contour ridges totalled over 2,4 million yards (2,2 million m),storm drains 1 600 yards (1 462 m), road drains 648 000 yards (593 000 m)and grass buffer strips 100 000 yards (91 400 m). The area fully protectedwas 11 130 acres (4 469 ha); 90 acres (36,3 ha) were partially protected ata cost of 2s. Id. per acre. Also, as detailed in the Report of the Secretary forNative Affairs,an outstanding movement in soil conservation work was successfully carried outwhere the land development officer had a number of old style 'crowders' made upfrom iron railway sleepers and issued them out to groups of people under head-men. He and his African staff then pegged the contour ridges in their arable lands,and the people, using their own oxen and labour without charge to government,constructed ridges. This accounts for the total of 11,131 acres [4 469 ha] protectedin the district and which is 66 per cent of the fully protected lands for the provinceduring the year.59Additional sources of potable water were crucial to Alvord's villageswith their expanding populations. In 1945 seven boreholes were drilled inthe granite which yielded an average 414 gallons per hour at a cost of S10616s. per hole. Only three of the four holes drilled in the schists weresuccessful, averaging 850 gallons per hour.60 In 1946 33 boreholes weredrilled in the Reserves and Purchase Areas north of Madziwa at a totalcost of S3 118 17s. 3d., that is, an average 14s. per foot (30 cm). Thirty-twoholes were successful,61 the majority of them in the Reserves, benefitingAlvord's new villages. The borehole, with its safe potable water, was andis the key to the intensive development of agriculture in Zimbabwe. Thesuccess of that development depends upon healthy people who are notweakened by bilharzia and other water-borne intestinal diseases. TheNative Commissioner Concession, whose clinic treated over 5 000 patientswith various ailments in 1944, lamented: 'Money is being voted and will bevoted to save our natural resources in land ... can we not ask for moremoney to be voted to save our human resources in the health and wellbeing of the natives?'62Alvord's strategy for orderly development was overtaken by the rapidexpansion of population and livestock numbers within the confined limitsof the Reserves. A measure of the change in Chiweshe is the rise in58 Rep. Seer. Native Ans and Chief Native Comm. 1948,91.58 Ibid., 93.60 'Irrigation Dept.: Ann. Rep. on Works in Native Reserves and Areas, 1945', in Reps. Seer.Native Affs. and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, 248.S1 'Works in Native Reserves and Areas: Ann. Rep. of the Irrigation Dept 1946' in Rep.Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1946, 69.62 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1944', in Reps Seer.Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945,163-4.58 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYpopulation from an estimated 13 593 persons in 1929rato 22 005 in 1948."However, this scenario is only partially accurate as the 1929 figure wasbased upon the number of tax-payers multiplied by 3,5, whereas in 1948the total population was calculated at 5 times the number of familiescounted. There are no comparable totals for livestock except that cattlenumbers for the whole district in 1929 were 20 423, while later in 1948 theywere 17 945 in Chiweshe alone which was deemed to be overstocked byten per cent (see Table VT).65Table VIPERCENTAGE OF OVER- AND UNDER-STOCKINGIN FIVE RESERVES, 1946-1948ChiwesheBushuMadziwaMasemburaMsana1946+8-9-9-8-41947+10+1-10-8-151948+10+4-2+10-14Area per livestock unit1948 equivalentacres8,59,513,69,011,6ha3,43,85,53,64,6Sources: Rep. Seer Native Affs., Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev., 1946, 49; Rep. Seer.Native Affs., Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev., 1947, 77; Rep. Seer. Native Affs., ChiefNative Comm. and Dir. Native Dev., 1948, 85.Overgrazing had become a serious problem in many Reserves, des-troying the palatable herbage, causing serous soil erosion and undoingthe good work of Alvord's field staff. In 1944 49 Reserves were declared tobe overstocked and early in 1945 a destocking plan for each was approved.'The reduction of the herds .. . was determinate on a percentage basis,according to the size of herd, the smaller owners being exempted duringthe early stages of the plan... [which] was based upon a five-year periodin which to bring down the number of stock in the reserve to the carryingcapacity prescribed . Ł Ł [in] 1944.'66The percentage of overstocking in fiveReserves during the years 1946 to 1948 is shown in Table VI, together withthe area of grazing available per animal unit in 1948. At that time eight63 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1929,14." Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1948, 88.65 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1929,85 .66 'Reo Seer Nan,,o Affs, Chief Native Comm. and Dir. Native Dev. 1945', in Reps. Seer.Native Aft^'and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945,211.A. G. DAVIS 59acres per unit were little enough in Chiweshe even during a favourableseason with a well-distributed rainfall of 32-36 inches (812-914 mm). Witha run of dry seasons stock had to be sold or starve. Later the grazing areawas increased to 10 acres (4,04 ha) per unit elsewhere but not in Chiweshe.Bushu, with a lower rainfall, was allocated a nine-acre unit (3,63 ha) in1948. In 1946 the government arranged for the orderly marketing of Africancattle by means of weight and grade sales with guaranteed prices,67 therebyproviding for the sale of the excess cattle in the Reserves. The African was,however, loath to sell his cattle because they were his only capital withthe cows earning interest in terms of calves.Cultivators who adhered closely to the standards of good husbandrylaid down by Alvord's staff were rewarded by being nominated first as co-operators, then as plot-holders and eventually master farmers. Theirnumbers in the Reserves in the Valley are not known. The ratio over thewhole country in 1948 was 187 : 1,6 : I.68 A later measure of their goodhusbandry is the average yield in bags per acre of all grain crops inChiweshe69 for the 1955 season (see Table VII).Table VIIAVERAGE YIELDS OF GRAIN CROPS IN CHIWESHE FOR THE 1955 SEASONBags/acre (kg/ha)(2 398)(1 255)(2 286)(538)Johnson70 has detailed the organization of marketing for the Africanproducer. This included the appointment of a marketing officer to Alvord'sstaff in 1948. He recorded the production of grain in the Mazowe district inthat year.71 The figures are shown in Table VIII. In the ten-year period from1937/8 the production of grains rose from 157 460 bags to 172 880 bags,72while the area of arable land almost doubled from 98 350 (39 730 ha) to67 Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1946, 3.68 R. W. M. Johnson, African Agricultural Development in Southern Rhodesia 1945-1960(Stanford, Stanford Univ. Food Research Institute, 1946), 181.a 'Native Land Husbandry Act: Minutes to Meeting of Assessment Committee ... forChiweshe Reserve in the Mazoe District', Sept. 1957, para. 14.70 Johnson, African Agricultural Development, 196-200.71 Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1948, 97.72 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1938, 12.Master farmersCo-operatorsPlot-holdersOrdinary farmers10,75,610,22,460 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYTable VIIIPRODUCTION OF GRAIN IN THE MAZOWE DISTRICT, 1948MaizeRapokoMhungaSorghumGroundnutsBeansRiceTOTALProducedbags/acre130 00016 2502 8702 01020 0001340410172 880(kg/ha)58 9677 37013029129 07260918678 418bags/acre710941246301395 2636463978 628Sold(kg/ha)32 248565137182 3872931835 666182 490 acres (73 720 ha) during the same period.73 All figures wereestimates. Both seasons received average rainfall. This would suggest thatyields per unit area of land had declined during the decade, but this is notnecessarily so. There were 84 000 acres (33 936 ha) of arable land inChiweshe in 1948,74 but four years later there were only approximately40 000 acres (16 160 ha) of maize and small grain crops.75 This indicatesthat there was much arable land lying idle, which conjecture is confirmedby Hamilton.76 His detailed survey of a sample area near Rosa in 1961/2found that, on average, 30 per cent of the arable land was lying fallow.Assuming that all the Reserves had a similar proportion of fallow land in1948, the average yields in the Valley were about two to three bags peracre (448 to 672 kg/ha).In 1949 a ten per cent tax was levied on the sale of livestock and crops,but not vegetables, under the provisions of the Native Development FundAct (No. 48 of 1948). The proceeds financed a trust to recover the cost ofmarketing and contribute towards the development of the Reserves.77 In1952 this levy realized £9 662 from the total sales of maize, small grains,groundnuts and cotton grown in Chiweshe.78 In contrast to this levy African73 Rep. Seer. Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1948, 88.n Ibid.75 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, An Agricultural Survey of Southern Rhodesia PartII: The Agro-Economic Survey (Salisbury, Government Printer, [1961]), 104.76 P. Hamilton, 'Population pressure and land use in Chiweshe', Human Problems in CentralAfrica: Rhodes-Livingstone Journal (Dec. 1964), XXXVI, 50.77 Johnson, African Agricultural Development, 2J12-13.78 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, An Agricultural Survey of Southern Rhodesia PartII: The Agro-Economic Survey, 104.A. G. DAVIS 61farmers received the benefit of a variable subsidy on sales of maize, forexample 5s. lid. in 1948/9 and 2s. Ad. in the following year.79Alvord retired in 1950 and was succeeded by R. M. Davis and the fieldstaff in the Valley continued their extension work. However, because of anincreasing human population, increasing livestock numbers and politicalpressures the benefits which Alvord had brought to the Africans and totheir land began to decline. This was revealed in surveys carried outbetween 1955 and 1957 in four Reserves, which have never been published,30in Hamilton's detailed study of a portion of Chiweshe in 1960/l,81and inJohnson's survey of the whole of Chiweshe Reserve.82The success of Alvord's programme should be viewed in the contextof the times. The long years of the Depression and the Second World Wardominated the central period of his tenure, which meant that initiallythere was little money to implement his schemes, and later there was ashortage of materials. Roads were dusty and corrugated in winter anddeep in mud in summer. Rivers in flood impeded travel, for there were nohigh-level bridges. The tarred strips on the main road from Harare toBindura were completed only in 1938.83 Alvord lived in a Europeancommunity, many of whom were not sympathetic to his work for theAfricans. Some farmers criticized him, others ostracized him because theyfeared the competition of African producers. Government funds for Africanagriculture and education were miserly. There were European staff at alllevels in the Native Department who were indifferent, even hostile, to hisefforts, an attitude I personally encountered later when I attempted toobtain land and advancement for my African graduates.Alvord's plans for the conservation of the land preceded theorganization of the land into land-use classes84 and the farm plans85 of theFederal Department of Conservation and Extension (CONEX) by sometwenty years. Although both Alvord and CONEX owed much to the earlierresearch in the United States Department of Agriculture, Alvord led theway in Zimbabwe.79 Johnson, African Agricultural Development, 215.«° 'Rep. Seer. Native Affs, Chief Native Comm., and Dir. Native Dev. 1943', in Reps. Seer.Native Affs and Chief Native Comm. 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, 138.81 Hamilton, 'Population pressure and land use in Chiweshe', 50.82 R. W. M. Johnson, 'An economic survey of Chiweshe Reserve', Human Problems inCentral Africa: Rhodes-Livingstone Journal (Dec. 1964), XXXVI, 82-108.83 Rep. Chief Road Engineer 1938 (Sess. Pap. C.S.R. 8, 1939), 1.84 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Land-use Planning Procedures (Salisbury, Dept.of Conservation and Extension, 1960).85 At my request one of the first of these plans was prepared by H. R. Hack, Alvord's son-in-law, in 1957; it is shown in A. G. Davis, The University College Farm in the Agriculture ofRhodesia and Nyasaland (London, Oxford Univ. Press, Inaugural Lecture Given in the UniversityCollege of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. 1960), 27-8.62 THE WORK OF E. D. ALVORD IN THE MAZOWE VALLEYAfrican families in the Mazowe Valley outside the Reserves were thefirst to acquire ploughs,86 and sold their surplus grain to the mines andtraders. They continued this practice when they were forced to move intothe Reserves where their example encouraged other families to buyploughs. When Alvord arrived on the scene in 1926, there were 1 038ploughs;87 by 1937 there were 5 580.88 Fourteen mealie planters werealready in use in Chiweshe in 1932.89 The more enterprising familiescultivated more land than their neighbours, moving to new sites when thesoils of the old area were exhausted. When prices collapsed during theDepression and when growing was restricted under the Maize ControlActs, the enterprising farmers, intent upon maintaining their income,ploughed even more land, land which should have remained grassed tofeed the livestock in the Reserve. Good soils were severely limited even onEuropean farms90 so some of the new sites must have been on marginalland which was vulnerable to soil erosion. Indeed, in Chiweshe in 1938,after ten years of extension work, farmers were still ploughing large areasthere 'up and down the slope'.91 A situation emerged in which existingfamilies were denied new lands and there was no good land left for newlymarried couples. Also all cattle had to be taken on a long daily trek forgrazing during the dry season. In Alvord's words:certain more ambitious Natives are hogging large areas of the best land andproducing crops for sale.... many others cannot find suitable land on which togrow food. We must enforce a redistribution of lands in the Reserves and thesemen who farm for profit should be requested to buy land in the Native PurchaseAreas92... tillage will have to be controlled and soil conservation and crop rotationsystems enforced.93His solution was to create centralized, permanent villages, a limit of fourto six acres of cultivated land per family, a crop-rotation scheme and thepreservation of grazing and forestry areas.Alvord's pioneering work and his success in the Reserves in protectingthe land and creating centralized settlement came to the attention of theCrown. He was awarded an MBE by King George VI on his visit to thecolony in 1947. This fame was short-lived. Outside the country, his name86 Natl. Arch., NSH/3/1/1 (Reports: Ann.: Native Comm., 1914), 2.87 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1927,13.88 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1937,11.89 Rep. Chief Native Comm. 1932, 5.90 A. G. Davis, 'Land use in the Mazoe Valley: Land capability classification', RhodesiaAgriculturalJournal (1976), LXXII1, 65-71.91 Quoted in T. O. Ranger, Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe (Harare,Zimbabwe Publishing House; London, Currey, 1985), 72.92 Ibid., 71. M Ibid., 95.A. G. DAVIS 63and work were not recognized. Alvord is not mentioned in Allan's wide-ranging account of the use of land by the African husbandman,94 nor inHudson's Soil Conservation,95 although both authors had worked in centralAfrica. Inside the country Alvord's scheme of centralization was overtakenby events in the 1950s which led to attempts by the government toregister land rights under the Native Land Husbandry Act (No. 52 of1951).96 This Act was strongly opposed by the inhabitants of the Reservesand was repealed in 1962.Centralization may have been a two-edged sword for, although itprotected the land, it prevented many progressive leaders in the communityfrom farming for profit. Few, if any, of these leaders were good farmers,and few adopted the a plan of crop-rotation and fertilizing the land withkraal manure which would maintain and improve the fertility of the soils.However, at the time, Alvord and his staff were right in pursuing the goalof conserving the land in the Mazowe Valley for the benefit of posterity.AcknowledgementsI am indebted to the National Archives in Harare, Zimbabwe, and to thePublic Record Office, Kew, for access to the records upon which thisstudy is based.94 W. Allan, The African Husbandman (Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1965).95 N. Hudson, Soil Conservation (London, Batsford, 1971).96 Rep. Advisory Comm. on the Dev. of the Economic Resources of Southern Rhodesia withParticular Reference to the Role of African Agric. [Chairman: i. Phillips] (Bess. Pap., C.S.R. 15,1962), 147.