250 



tulipifera and Liquidambar styraciflua. The rate of leaf growth in 

 these trees seemed to me to be much lower than it is in their 

 native range, although I have not yet exact comparative measure- 

 ments to prove this. 



What the rates of leaf growth at Cinchona may be in the drier 

 brighter months of summer I am unable to say. How the rates 

 here shown may compare with those in lowland trees which are 

 not conspicuously rapid in growth I am also unable to say. 



The facts present indicate: (a) that the rate of leaf growth in 

 the trees of the Jamaican montane rain-forest is very slow as 

 compared with that in tropical trees in which it has already been 

 measured ; (b) the renewing foliage of deciduous trees does not 

 grow more rapidly than that of evergreen broad-leaf trees ; (c) the 

 prevalence of conditions unfavourable to both photosynthesis and 

 transpiration would seem to offer at least a partial explanation of 

 the slow rates of growth. 



REFORM IN RURAL EDUCATION. 



The Gloucester conference on rural education in 1904 directed 

 public attention to the need for adapting rural education to rural 

 requirements. Several country education authorities have since 

 instituted inquiries into the subject, chambers of agriculture have 

 passed resolutions, and now the County Councils Association, 

 through its Rural Education Sub-Committee, has published a 

 " Memorandum as to certain subjects suitable for the upper stand- 

 ards of elementary schools, and for evening schools in rural 

 districts." This memorandum is worthy of careful examination. 

 The case for reform may first be briefly stated. 



It is a disturbing thought that during the past half-century 

 scientific method has largely disappeared from rural elementary 

 education. The child whose education chiefly consisted in learn- 

 ing from what he saw and did in the field, sheepfold and farm- 

 stead, grew into a man who, though his range of view was limited, 

 possessed a remarkable store of accurate first-hand knowledge 

 upon those things which concerned his work in life. With the 

 introduction of a system of compulsory schooling, in which know- 

 ledge was principally gained from the lips of the teacher, the 

 scientific method of basing knowledge on individual experience 

 largely disappeared. Now faculties, while easily developed in 

 children, as easily become atrophied through disuse, and under 

 the present system, it is too often the case that lads as they leave 

 school have neither the power of intelligent observation which is 

 essential to success in rural industry, nor have they acquired an 

 interest in country things. In the absence of such interests, the 

 amusements of a town prove an irresistible attraction, and 

 this, it is believed, has been one of the factors in bringing about 

 rural depopulation and the scarcity of skilled men on the farms, 

 while at the same time we meet in every London street with able- 

 bodied out-of-works. 



