NOTES. 803 



has undertaken with oonsideral)le success" "to provide other influences than those of 

 the streets and alleys of our tenement districts for the children during the long sum- 

 mer vacation." 



The school garden experiment was the most successful work undertaken at the 

 School of Horticulture last year. This fact led the director of the school, Mr. H. D. 

 Hemenway, to broaden his plans for that feature of the work during the season of 

 1902. For those who had garden plats last year he provided preliminary greenhouse 

 work tluring March and April in propagating plants for transplanting. The size of 

 the plats this year will be 10 by 30 ft. for second-year boys and 10 by 20 ft. for first- 

 year boys. Provision has been made also for a class of girls who will receive instruc- 

 tion and be given garden plats like those provided for the boys. 



AdKicrLTi-RAL Education in the British West Indies. — The subject of agricul- 

 tural education received consideralile attention at the West Indian Agricultural 

 Conference held recently at Bridgetown, Barbados. As reported by Dr. Morris, 

 commissioner of agriculture for the West Indies, the system of education now in 

 vogue in those islands comprises (1) lectures to teachers in charge of elementary 

 schools, (2) agricultural teaching in secondary schools and colleges, and (3) itinerant 

 instruction to planters. The entire system is in charge of the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture for the AVest Indies, which employs for this work a staff of 2 lec- 

 turers in agricultural science, 1 traveling instructor in agriculture, and 5 agricultural 

 instructors. The lectures to teachers in charge of elementary schools are given in 

 courses at the leading towns on the different islands in the group. Classes of teach- 

 ers are organized by the lecturers or instructors in agriculture and meet daily for sev- 

 eral weeks (usually four) to receive instruction in elementary science and agriculture, 

 subjects which they are then required to introduce into the elementary schools. 

 Such courses of lectures have been given by the board of agriculture at two places on 

 the island of Jamaica, at British Guiana, Trinidad, Barbados, the Windward Islands, 

 and the Leeward Islands. At Barbados and in the Windward and Leeward islands 

 practically all the teachers have attended these lectures. As a further aid to this 

 work the Imperial Department of Agriculture has published a text-book for teachers 

 entitled Nature Teaching, and a pamphlet containing hints for laying out and plan- 

 ning school gardens. Agricultural instruction of a higher grade is given in secondary 

 schools and colleges, among which are agricultural schools located at St. Vincent, 

 Dominica, and St. Lucia. Attached to the agricultural schools are experiment sta- 

 tions where the students assist in farming operations. The course of study lasts for 

 three or four years, according to the age of the student at admission. Seven scholar- 

 ships in agriculture, including two of the annual value of £75 each for the Windward 

 and Leeward islands, are maintained by the department. Itinerant instruction is of 

 recent origin. In September and October last a series of seven lectures to planters 

 was delivered by the officers of the Imperial Department of Agriculture on such sub- 

 jects as sugar cane, soils, and manures in relation to the cultivation of certain varie- 

 ties of cane; hints on the planting and cultivation of sugar cane; insect pests on sugar 

 cane, and the fungoid iliseases of the sugar cane. These lectures were attended by 

 about 120 to 140 planters and were greatly appreciated. 



Instruction in Agriculture in the Primary Schools of Russia. — At a meeting 

 of Russian school instructors at Moscow, the diffusion of popular agricultural informa- 

 tion through the medium of primary schools was discussed. The congress expressed 

 it.self opposed to the introduction of the study of trades in primary schools, believing 

 that special schools should be established for that purpose; but, on the other hand, 

 it expressed the opinion that it is very desirable to diffuse agricultural information 

 among the teachers of this grade of schools by means of periodical special courses 

 for their Ijenefit. 



Nature Study. — A nature study exhibition will be held at the gardens of the 

 Royal Botanic Society, Regent Park, London, S. W., beginning Wednesday, July 23. 



