Vol. III. No. 52. 



THE AGEICULTUEAL NEWS. 



119 



EDUCATIONAL 



Harrison College, Barbados. 



The following is the report on the examination in 

 agricultural science, conducted by Mr. H. H. Cousins, 

 M.A., F.C.S., Government Agricultural and Analytical 

 Chemist, Jamaica : — 



Six student.s entered for this examination. The marks 

 obtained on the whole work vary from a maximum of 83 jier 

 cent. — Bancroft — to a minimum of 46 per cent., with an 

 average of 67 per cent. I mention this result as a striking 

 proof tliat the higher standard of work I felt justified in 

 asking for in this examination has been very adequately met 

 both by the teaching staft and the taught. 



A comparison of the work submitted by the class in 

 1901 with that .sent in in 1903 is truly surprising. The 

 suliject is now no longer an ordinary school subject strictly 

 limited to mere text-book knowledge and practically devoid 

 of technical value and insight. The jiapers sent are, for the 

 most part, of a high standard and display a technical, 

 agricultural and practical attitude that is highly credital:)le 

 both to Professor d'Albuquerque, his staff and his pupils. 



As three years have now elai)sed since I was first 

 Ijrivileged to examine agricultural science at Barbados, 1 may 

 perhaps be permitted to express an opinion as to the i)rogress 

 of this work. The agricultural science course at Barbados is 

 a branch of the secondary education at Harrison College ; it 

 might therefore seem, at first sight, unfair to expect any 

 api)roach to a true technical standard of teaching under such 

 conditions. I recognized, however, that in the Island 

 Professor and his staff, with the reflected stimulus 

 of the Imijerial Department, Barbados possessed 

 the requisite machinery for attaining a standard 

 of high efficiency in the teaching of agricultural 

 principles specially focussed to the needs and cir- 

 cumstances of the colony. 



I therefore deliberately set myself to establish 

 a standard in these examinations that should raise 

 'Agriculture' from its well-merited contempt as 

 a school or ' South Kensington ' subject to a level 

 capable of expressing some practical insight into 

 the actualities of the local industry. 



The results in 1902 encouraged me in this 

 aim, and the outcome of this last examination has 

 entirely justified the opinion I had formed. With- 

 out departing from the limits of the syllabus, 

 questions were set involving agricultural ' nous,' 

 so as to elicit the information in the form in 

 which alone such knowledge can be of use in 

 practice. Had the class been taught in routine 

 lines and from text-books only, the marks obtained 

 would have been low. 1 am indeed pleased and 

 proud to be able to record that, in the majority 

 of cases, the ({uestions were treated in a style and 

 spirit deserving of all praise. These results must 

 be recognized as an undenialjle proof that the 

 Barbados is not only educational but is also 



Barbados. 



The annual report of the Inspectors of Schools 

 at Barbados contains the following notice of the 

 educational work of the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture : — 



We would again record, with nuich appreciation, the 

 assishmce rendered to elementary education by the Agricultu- 

 ral and Science Departments. The lectures of Dr. Long- 

 field Smith on the studj' of nature were continued until 

 June at the four centres arranged in the previous year. The 

 teachers attended regularly, and the increased interest mani- 

 fested by the pupils at the annual examination in the object- 

 lesson exercises, and also in the cultivation of plants, mostly 

 in pots or boxes, but at a few schools in gardens, was 

 evidence that the work of the lecturer had not been fruitless. 

 At the local exhibition held at Lower Estate on January 

 1"2, 1901, the exhibits from the schools were fewer than on 

 previous occasions, we think from local disadvantages, but 

 the character of the exhibits was acknowledged by every 

 one to be distinctly superior to that of those shown at previous 

 exhibitions. Most of the prizes on this occasion were 

 obtained by jnipils in the Mount Tabor, Turner's Hall, 

 Clifton Hill, St. Augustine's, St. Matthew's, and Greenwich 

 Schools. 



MALTESE DONKEYS. 



In May 1901, a fine Maltese jack 'Orphan Boy' 

 and a jenny of the same breed were imported from the 

 United States by the Imperial Department of Agriculture 

 and placed at the Skeri'ett's Farm at Antigua. Both have 



?^<s^ 





work at 

 imbued with 

 that technical and practical spirit, which is necessary if 

 agricultural science is to be taught to any adequate 

 purpose. 



The practical work in Sugar Chemistry showed a fairly 

 uniform competence in the performance of the standard 

 method of sugar analysis involved in modern factory 

 control. 



Fig. 6. ^Ialtese Jenny and Foal at Aj^tigua. 



since grown into handsome and valuable animals. In 

 September 1903, the jenny gave birth to a foal which is 

 represented in the above illustration. Another jack, ' John B, 

 Junior,' was imported from the United States in June 1901, 

 and placed at the Agricultural School at Dominica. A half- 

 bred jack ' Bismarck,' obtained from Jamaica in March 1901, 

 has proved a great success at Nevis. The Department is 

 anxious to obtain a good half-bred jack similar to the last 

 from one of the other islands. 



