A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW ^.v . 



or THE pOTA^ 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. l^*^ 



Vol. XII. No. 302. 



BARBADOS. NOVEMBER 22, 1913. 



Peice Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Paob 



Ajiricultuiiil Bia.-i in the 

 Teaching of .Subjects other 

 than Science o69 



Agvicultnral Research in 

 French and German Colo- 

 nies 376 



Banana Collection, Philip- 

 r'ne 372 



Book Shelf 379 



Cacao and Coco-nut Markets, 

 Note on 376 



Citrus Fruits in Florida, 



of... 



372 



r.s in 

 .. 374 

 .. 374 

 .. 381 

 371 



Hyliridizatiiin 

 Cotton Notes: — 



Pea.sant Cotton Growe 

 Antigua 



West Indian Cotton 

 Department News ... 

 Departmental Reports 

 Electricity ard Crop Produc- 



ticai 373 



Epizootic Lymphangitis... 373 

 Fungus Notes : — 



Cotton Disea.ses in St. 



Croix 382 



Pink Disease .382 



Gleanings 380 



Ground Nut Trade witli 



Canada 377 



Paok. 



Horsos, Studies of Inheri- 

 tance in 373 



Indian Tobaccos, Studies 

 in :!77 



Insect Notes : — 



A Pest of Oranges at 



Dominica 378 



Insect Pests at St. Croix 378 



Lemon Grass Oil from Fiji, 

 Note on 375 



Ijouisiana: Its Untold 

 Trea>ures 377 



Market Reports 384 



Comments 



Notes and Comments ... .376 



Pulza Oil 376 



Pump for Estate Work, 



New .'{73 



Rublier, (,)uality of 375 



Rubber Plantation Industry, 



Position of 377 



Soutli Africa, Grow inn Cigar 

 Wrapper Tobacco "in ... 383 



Students' Corner .381 



Sugar Industry: — 



Etif ct of the New Ameri- 

 can Tariff 374 



Tobacco Seed, Experiments 

 with 383 



Agricultural Bias in the Teaching of 

 Subjects other than Science. 



^^[^W^HOSE who have had experience in the 

 (Z^ ^J^ teaching of agricultural science will know 

 ^5feo^that, although a student may possess a fair 

 knowledge of a subject like elementary geometry, 

 the possibility of his applying it in the field and 

 garden is generally very remote. Thi.s circumstance 

 is to be regretted for two reasons: firstly, because 

 it means a waste of latent power: and secondly, because 

 it shows that an agricultural bias is seldom if ever 



given to the teaching of subjects other than science in 

 agricultural or rural secondary schools. It is com- 

 monly believed by the general public, that the 

 best that can be done in secondary schools is to 

 establish an agricultural science side, the influence 

 of which is not to permeate the whole school, bub 

 merely the handful of pupils who, by means of 

 various inducements like scholarships, have been 

 tempted to join it. That is a great mistake. In 

 a rural secondary school, agriculture, mathematics 

 and languages should constitute one organic whole. lb 

 is not intended to imply that the teaching should be 

 made 'utilitarian' in the commonly accepted sense of the 

 term — namely the sacrifice of brain exercises for useful 

 'tips' — but merely that the student should be led to 

 think in an agricultural 'atmosphere' in an enlightened 

 and original manner. 



Agricultural bias can be quite easily given ta 

 subjects which seem far removed from agriculture. In 

 the teaching of English, for instance, a list of subjects 

 for composition may include a fair proportion of ones 

 pertaining to agriculture — not necessarily, nor indeed 

 desirably, agricultural subjects which demand for their 

 treatment a vtry special technical knowledge, but 

 general rural subjects like the uses of cotton, the culti- 

 vation of the sugar-cane, or, for students who are 

 capable of dealing with more philosophical questions, 

 the advantages of Land Settlements and so on. How 

 many boys in a West Indian secondary school could 

 write a good intellectual essay on any one of 

 these questions? And yet these subjects bear upon 

 immediate surroundings, and are features of environ- 

 ment about which the student ought to be taught to 

 think, and to observe. 



With geometry, as has already been intimated, 

 a pupil may be thoroughly versed in elementary 



