Vol. IV. No. 91. 



THE AGR[CULTUEAL NEWS. 



315 



EDUCATIONAL 



Agriculture in Elementary Schools. 



The following note appeared in the Barbados 

 Bidletin of September 28 : — 



Professsor Davenport, Dean of tlie College of Agri- 

 culture of Illinois, U.S.A., give.s a.s tlie principal reasons why 

 agriculture should be taught in the public schools the follow- 

 ing : (1) to instil a love and respect for the land, and the 

 occupation of agriculture; (2) to instil respect for industry in 

 general ; (.3) to cultivate the active and creative instinct ; 

 (4) to give practice and experience in success and failure ; 

 (.5) to connect the school with real life ; (6) to stimulate and 

 train the powers of observation ; (7) to make an avenue of 

 communication between the teacher and the pupil ; (8) to 

 train the independent methods of acquiring information. 



Barbados. 



The following extract rehxting to the teaching 

 of the principles of agriculture in elementary schools 

 at Barbados is taken from the Annual Report of the 

 Education Board for 1904:— 



The subject of agriculture is making steady progress 

 in the schools. Where land is not available for school 

 gardens, plants are in many instances grown in pots and 

 boxes. The Board beg to express their thanks for the 

 assistance they have received in this matter from Sir Daniel 

 !Morris. The effects of the lectures delivered by members 

 of the staff of the Imperial Department of Agriculture are 

 now being seen. 



The £20 granted by the Legislature for the [)urchase of 

 chemicals and apparatus for simple agricultural experiments 

 was expended by the Board, and about twelve teachers 

 received instruction from Dr. Longfield Smith in the use of 

 the apparatus provided. The experience gained, however, 

 does not warrant the Board in again expending this grant 

 on similar articles. They propose to ecpiip school gardens 

 as far as the grant will go annually with agricultural 

 implements such as hoes, rakes, forks, etc. 



Jamaica. 



To the Annual Report of the Superintending 

 Inspector of Schools in Jamaica for the year ended 

 March 31 last, is appended an interesting report by 

 Mr. J. R. Williams, 51.A., on the ' Teaching and 

 practical work in agriculture in Trinidad and the 

 neighbouring islands.' Mr. Williams, it will be 

 remembered, was one of the representatives from 

 Jamaica at the last West Indian Agricultural 

 Conference. 



After dealing with the work in jjrogress in 

 Trinidad, Mr. Williams states his general impressions 

 and makes suggestions as follows: — • 



I am strongly of opinion that in equipping the teacher 

 with the knowledge and interest needful for successful agri- 

 cidtural work in the schools, we have done more in .Jamaica 

 than I have heard of elsewhere : I mean in the attention 

 •devoted to agricultural science of late years in the Training 

 ■Colleges and in the annual special courses at the Jlico. 

 I believe this to have been most necessary work — the 

 preparation of the teachers. The failure of our attempt 

 to get practical work in agriculture in the schools in 

 189.5 and later was largely due to the teachers' 

 unpreparednes.s, their lack of interest in the work, and 



their lack of confidence in themselves. Another part of the 

 needful preparation has been the education of the outside 

 public, the parents of the children ; thanks to the efforts of 

 the Agricultural Society, a good deal has been done to this 

 end. The school gardens which I saw in Trinidad were unfor- 

 tunately visited just at the worst time. The school shows 

 came off in November and December, and I was told that 

 their crops had been gathered then, and no fresh work 

 undertaken since ; they would now all immediately resume 

 practical work. 1 could not, however, see proof that better 

 work has been done in these gardens, or in the town schools 

 which confined their efforts to pot cidture, than in our schools. 

 One of the important lessons school gardens should teach is 

 the possibility of some culture going on all the time, and 

 there were few signs in the way of nurseries, manure heaps-, 

 grafted and budded, and pruned plants, of efforts superior 

 to the average of our efforts. Mr. Cohens, when I showed 

 him what we aim at, as it is set forth in Article 112 of the 

 Code and p. 2-5 of the 'Instructions' to Inspectors, and inquired 

 how far it represented the ideal in Trinidad, remarked that 

 it would be very satisfactory if such work could be got, and 

 said he intended to make use of the instructions in his 

 department. 



Jly opinion, therefore, is that we are now in a better 

 position than most of our neighbours to embark successfully 

 on the development of agricultural teaching, and particularly 

 such practical exemplification of it as schools can properly 

 midertake : that what we specially need now is development 

 and more practical work, and I believe that what is mostly 

 needed to secure this is to make our requirements and 

 regulations a little less formal and exacting. I think it will 

 be disastrous to pull our present plant up by the roots or to 

 alter our ideal. 



BEE KEEPING AT ST. LUCIA. 



The following note, showing the progress in the 

 bee-keeping industry at St. Lucia, is extracted from the 

 Annual Report of the Agricultural Instructor : — 



In 1902 there were seventy colonies of bees in St. Lucia ; 

 in 190.3 these were increased to 13.5 ; in 1904 to 250; and 

 at the time of writing there are 400 colonies, nearly all of 

 which are worked for extracted lionej'. The crop of 1904, 

 although late, commencing in ilay, proved a fair one, and 

 about 4 tons of honey were exported in addition to local sale.s. 

 The quality was not high, .some of it being extracted before 

 being thoroughly ripened, and the colour a dark amber, the 

 flavour being fairly good. I happened to be in London when 

 the first consignment arrived and was disappointed to find the 

 Mincing Lane valuation to be not more than 15s. in barrels 

 and 17s. in cases. I made arrangements for private .sales of 

 2 tons at 40s. per cwt., less cost of advertisements, railway 

 carriage, repacking, etc., etc., the net return being 25s. per 

 cwt. These figures give some idea of the immense profit 

 realized by middlemen dealing in honey, and it would a^ipear 

 profitable for West Indian honey producers to combine and 

 avoid the middleman entirely. The English consumer seldom 

 buys a pound of honey for less than Is. I had several 

 opportunities of sampling English honey and found it was 

 not one whit superior to West Indian. Theoretically all 

 West Indian honey is only fit for manufacturing purposes, 

 yet much of it is bottled and sold for from Is. to Is. Qd. 

 per lb. as English honey. Our exports this year will be 

 nearly all in 5-gallon tins and thoroughly ripened, the crop 

 prospect is good and some honey has been lately sold at 

 public sale for 23s. per cwt. ; by private sale as much as 

 56s. per cwt. is being realized. 



