Vol. IV. No. 84. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



207 



EDUCATIONAL 



Agricultural Education in Jamaica. 



From the following extracts from the recently 

 issued report on the Education Department of Jamaica 

 for lOOS-i it will be seen that progress is certainly 

 being made in the attempts to introduce the teaching 

 of agricvdture in the elementary schools of the colony. 



In regard to the practical teaching in agriculture 

 and horticulture Mr. Capper says: — 



There is a continued increase in the number of attempts 

 at practical field work, and the work shown is, in my estima- 

 tion, exceedingly creditable. The advance is not to be 

 measured by the amount of grants given, as tlie standard 

 was at first for obvious reasons a very low one and has liad 

 of necessity to be raised. The following are the total 

 amounts of grants for the past four years: — 1900-1, 

 £34 12s.; 1901-2, £47 12s.; 1902-3, £77 12?.; 190.3-4, 

 £105 12s. 1(/. 



The fourth course of lectures on agriculture was held in 

 Jamiaiy 1904 at the Mice College by Mr.T. F. Teversham. 

 Sixty teachers were present, and afternoon addresses and 

 lectures were delivered, as on former occasions, by the 

 Archbishop and others, whilst a course of evening lessons in 

 manual occupation was again conducted by ^Ir. Peet and 

 yh\ Skyers. The benefit of these courses is being increas- 

 ingly felt. 



The following are extracts from the remarks of 

 the Inspectors on the subject of elementary science : — 



' About one-third of the teachers in my district have 

 had the advantage of the special course at Hope of 

 instruction in agricultural science, but I have not, since the 

 beginning of this year, when the last course was given, 

 inspected the schools of those who took that course. So far 

 as mj- inspections have tested the matter, there have been in 

 those schools whose teachers have taken such a special 

 course, an increased interest manifested by the scholars and 

 an increased value in the lessons in agricultural science 

 given in those schools. The wisdom of giving this special 

 course to our teachers is manifest. While only two teachers 

 in my district have presented their practical work in the 

 field as entitled to the special grant, several had little garden 

 plots, some of which had been made very useful in illustrating 

 agricultural teaching and some of them are to be enlarged 

 and made more perfect, so as to merit the special grant this 

 current year.' 



'This subject is, in many of the schools, intelligently 

 taught, and the scholars give practical evidence of their 

 interest in the lessons, which are mainly devoted to the 

 principles of agriculture. The lessons are very frequentij' 

 illustrated by diagrams, black-board drawings, and clay 

 models.' 



' Some acquaintance, probably a slightly increased 

 acquaintance, with some of the elementary principles of 

 <igriculture, is usually shown by some scholars. That is the 

 most favourable statement that can with safety be made. So 

 far as one can judge at inspection, not much is done in most 

 ■schools by way of teaching this subject experimentally, and 

 the tendency is to emphasize the rules rather than the 

 reasons. The question " why ? " should be a favourite 

 ■question. Several teachers have, with varying degrees of 

 -success and failure, made at least some use of box 



cultivation, etc., to illustrate certain facts to which 

 they wished to draw the attention of the children, and there 

 are some school gardens, a few of which are well kept ; but it 

 is a very rare thing to find a genuine attempt to teiich by 

 way of contrast, by setting the right way and the wrong side 

 by side for the scholars to see.' 



' The numlier of small gardens is increasing rapidly and 

 now that the size required for a grant under Article 112 is to 

 be only 1 square chain, there will probably be a larger 

 number of applications, but unless there is greater evidence 

 of scientific methods and experimental work than the majority 

 show at present, there will not be any great increase in 

 grants under this article.' 



' ilost of the school gardens in the eastern district were 

 ruined in the hurricane, but the teachers have, as a rule, done 

 all that cau be expected to repair the damage. Only one of 

 the schools I have visited has claimed the grant under 

 Article 112 : in this case veiy good work has been done.' 



WEST INDIAN FISHERIES. 



Bermuda. 



The following note in regard to the fisheries in 

 Bermuda is extracted from the Annual Report for 

 1904:— 



I have in previous repoi-ts stated that there would 

 appear to be a good opening for such an industry in these 

 islands if worked on organized principles. Not only is no 

 fish exported, but there is no regular fish market in the 

 colon}'. Fish is purchased by butchers, by weight, and an 

 incentive is thereby given to fishermen to catch the heaviest 

 and coarsest kind of fish, and the ordinary households are 

 forced to eat that or none. The only alternative is to keep 

 one's own fish-pot or to subsidize a fisherman. 



Tarpon Fishing in Jamaica. 



The Fiiliing Gatetfc of May 13 has an interesting 

 letter from Blajor Ilutton, R.E., on ' Tarpon Fishing in 

 Jamaica.' Major Hutton gives an account of some of 

 his experiences with the tarpon — or trapon, as it is 

 called locally — and a number of other game fish, 

 including jack, snook, barracouta, bony fish, and others. 



The Editor of the Fishing Gazette writes: — 



!Major Hutton, R.E., called on me the other day to say 

 that statements to the effect that the fi.shing in .Jamaica 

 was very poor were the reverse of correct, and gave me some 

 accounts of excellent sport which he had had Avith small 

 tarpon on the fly, and larger fish on liait. He says he would 

 not recommend any one to go there for sport as the want of 

 [convenient ?] hotels makes it necessary to know some 

 planter in most cases. The fact is, hardly anything is 

 known in Jamaica about the [tarpon] fishing. 



