215 



The solution to these difficulties lies mainly in the fact that 

 education and research should go hand in hand under proper con- 

 ditions. At present there are too many isolated attempts at re- 

 search in the tropics and not enough in the direction of broad 

 education. The research man should be allowed to teach the 

 young generation he will later advise. 



Agricultural C'lucation has from time to time been subjected 

 to considerable ridicule by practical agriculturists, even by those 

 who have received one. That is because it has not been correctly 

 administered. Education in agricultural science should have for 

 its main object the teaching of where, when and why to^ apply 

 for advice, and not aim merely to instil isolated facts and opera- 

 tions or to train specialists. The student who intends to culti- 

 vate land should not, for instance, be taught how to analyze a 

 soil, but rather under what conditions a soil should be analyzed 

 and the usefulness of the results. 



Consequent on such a widening of the practical man's square 

 — to speak again figuratively — his contact with the specialist will 

 be increased, without interfering either with his own particular 

 depth and kind of information or with that of the specialist. It 

 is true that specialization might progress, under such conditions, 

 more rapidly than the practical man could keep up with, in which 

 case the class of scientific practitioner already referred to, would 

 quickly evolve ; but it wouUl be from a different cause, a more 

 desirable cause than that which necessitates the combination of 

 agriculturist and scientific specialist in one, at the present day. 



With the extended appreciation of scientific results by the agri- 

 culturist, the necessity for a large number of agricultural depart- 

 ments would tend to diminish. The State would be relieved of 

 responsibility. Taxation would be less. The planter does him- 

 self what he paid others to do. Men of administrative ability 

 would be required in the various communities to direct local 

 cooperative movements it is true, but they would be entirely un- 

 official. A priori, one other thing would be necessary. Those 

 who intended to undertake the cultivation of the land, who did 

 so with the fixed intention of discreetly utilizing the knowledge 

 of the specialist, would need to be catered for by the establishment 

 of an inexpensive and easily accessible tropical agricultural uni- 

 versity. 



PROBLEMS IN PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



Professor Bayley Balfour, F. R. S., delivered as the eighth 

 "Masters Lecture," an extremely interesting and practical dis- 

 sertation on the subject of propagation by cuttings. The lecture 

 is published in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 Vol. XXXVIII, Part 3. 



Professor Balfour commenced by raising the question as to 



