Vol. XIII. No. 314. 



THE AGEICULTURAL NEWS. 



157 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



AN INDIAN REPORT. 

 III. 



Dr. Coleman's Report on Agricultural Education 

 in India has received attention in the last two issues 

 of the Agricultural Neus. This, the third and final 

 portion of the Report to be published in this journal, 

 deals with secondary education in agriculture, empha- 

 sizes the value of local support, and the importance of 

 co-operation between Agricultural and Educational 

 Departments. 



With regard to secondary education in agriculture, the 

 question of the establishment of vernacular agricultural 

 schools is one tliat should receive careful consideration. It 

 is, moreover, a question that might well receive the attention 

 of district boards, for I believe that, in order to make such 

 schools a success, local interest is absolutely necessary, and 

 this can be gauged perhaps in no better way than by ascer- 

 taining whether such schools could be partially supported by 

 local contributions or a small local levy. In this connexion, 

 I might recall the fact that for the congressional schools in 

 Georgia, the buildings and land are supplied by the locality 

 where the school is situated, the annual cost of upkeep alone 

 being met by Government. In Wisconsin, the schools are largely 

 supported by the counties in which they are situated. The 

 question of establishing an agricultural school in each district 

 has come up more than once for discussion at the Representa- 

 tive Assembly but it is hard to tell to what extent this 

 represents a real demand on the part of the agriculturists of 

 the State. Should it appear that there is a real demand for 

 such schools, I feel sure that their establishment would mark 

 a distinct forward step, but if they are to be a success they 

 must be able to provide instruction much more cheaply than 

 does the present agricultural school in liombay. 



Whether it is feasible to carry on instruction in agricul- 

 ture in existing high schools seems to me doubtful, as the 

 percentage of rural children attending such schools must be 

 very small indeed. It is, however, a means of agricultural 

 education which should not be lost sight of in the future. 



It is clear that, in the development of agricultural 

 education, progress will, at the beginning, not be rapid. 

 The training of teachers and of proper supervisors will 

 take time. At the best, any scheme must be a tentative 

 one, as no one can with certainty say beforehand just 

 what form of agricultural education will succeed. We 

 find in other countries evidence enough of mistakes 

 in the means employed, and we can hardly hope to 

 be more fortunate here. Any experiments that are made 

 should, therefore, be made only after a careful consideration 

 of local conditions. A selection should then be made of 

 those schools or groups of schools which appear most likely 

 to yield satisfactory results. If, after a trial of several 

 years, the experiment proves a success, more rapid extension 

 of the work may then take place. 



In the above discussion, I have purposely avoided the 

 question of granting special subsidies to teachers and 

 schools which take up this type of rural science instruction, 

 as that is a matter for the Educational Department to 



consider. I wish it also to be clearly understood that, in 

 the proposed scheme of co-operation, there is no thought of 

 usurping the functions of the Educational Department. 

 The functions of the Agricultural Department should be 

 purely that of giving advice and supervision in the work, 

 and dual authority over the teachers should, as far as 

 possible, be avoided. 



The Headmaster of the St. Kitts Grammar School has 

 forwarded the following statement concerning the results of 

 the recent Cambridge Local Examinations in the Science 

 subjects, held at that institution in December 191.3: Seniors 

 —chemistry one candidate, one paper 'good'; botany, one 

 candidate, three 'moderately good'; agricultural science,' two 

 candidates, one '.satisfied'; no failures. Juniors— chemistry, 

 three candidates, two distinguished; botany, four, three 

 'good'; two failures. Preliminary — chemistry three, one 

 moderately good; botany three, four satisfied; one failure. 

 There was thus a total number of candidates amounting to 

 twelve, of whom ten passed. 



Prize Pasture Competition.— Through the liberal- 

 ity of Colonel the Hon. I!. S. Cotton and Messrs. Henckel du 

 Buisson & Co., a second prize pastur eimprovement competi- 

 tion will take place during 1915, at Antigua. The first 

 prize, £20, is offered by Colonel Cotton; the second prize, 

 £10, will be presented by Messrs. Henckel du Buisson & Co! 

 The value of the third prize has not yet been decided upon. 

 The following are the conditions under which the prizes are 

 offered for competion: (1) competing pastures must have been 

 properly entered for competition; (2) pastures must not be 

 less than 20 acres in area; (3) pastures must be adequately 

 fenced; (4) pastures must be free from all bush; (5) at least 

 one suitable shade tree, preferably saman, must be planted 

 per acre; this must be properly fenced and in a growing 

 state at judging time; (6) pastures must have regularly been 

 used as such up to the time of judging; (7) the awarding 

 of any or all of the prizes is contingent on entries being of 

 sufficient merit; the appointment of judges for the competi- 

 tion shall rest with the Department of Agriculture acting in 

 conjunction with the Agricultural Society: the final decision 

 in any question of dispute shall rest with the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture. 



Intending competitors must enter not later than 

 January 1, 1915. A fee of 5s. will be required for each 

 pasture entered for competition. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



Thelmperial Commissioner of Agriculture, accom- 

 panied by the Mycologist on the Staff of the Depart- 

 ment, returned to Barbados on May G by the 

 R.M.S. 'Chaleur' from an official visit to St. Kitts. 



Mr. \V. R. Dunlop, Scientific Assistant on the 

 Staff of the Department, returned to Barbados by way 

 of Trinidad on April 29 by the R.M.S. 'Berbice from an 

 official visit to St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Grenada. 



