NOTES. 199 



In the meantime, tlie secretary of agriculture proposes the organization of a 

 traveling school of agriculture and that instructors be sent from place to place 

 in the coffee-producing regions to teach the producers how to improve their 

 plantations, etc. He also proposes the establishment of experimental agricul- 

 tural fields in the coffee and cacao producing regions to teach the farmers the 

 rudiments of scientific farming. A bill was passed last July establishing an 

 agricultural school in the Department of the West. 



Rafael Bustillo has been appointed assistant director of the school for the 

 cultivation of tobacco at Danli, Honduras. This school has a considerable 

 number of students and under its Influence the cultivation of tobacco in the 

 Republic has greatly increased during the last few years. 



Dr. A. Backhaus has submitted a plan to the department of agriculture of 

 Paraguay for the founding of an agronomic institute in the country. An ex- 

 periment station has been established by the government of Peru in the region 

 of the Madre de Dios River with the special object of encouraging the scientific 

 cultivation of rubber-producing trees indigenous to that section, and for the 

 purpose of introducing and acclimatizing useful food-producing plants. Prepa- 

 rations are being made for an international exposition of agriculture, stock 

 raising, and industry, to be held in the city of San Salvador in August. An ex- 

 ecutive decree of March 24 provides for the establishment of four meteorological 

 stations in Venezuela at Merida. Ciudad Bolivar, Maracaibo, and Calabozo. 



Agricultural Instruction in Grenada. — The Grenada Boys' Secondary School 

 was opened on September 18, 1912, at St. George with 38 pupils, which number 

 has since increased to 72. Agricultural instruction is to form a prominent 

 feature of the curriculum, and by means of free scholarships to boys from the 

 elementary schools and the cadet system of the agricultural department, it is 

 planned to give a definite course of instruction in theoretical and practical 

 agriculture. 



Training' Agricultural Experts in Spain. — ^A royal decree of April 11, 1913, 

 provides for introducing instruction for the training of agricultural experts 

 (Peritos agricolas) into the regional practical schools of agriculture at Valla- 

 dolid and Zaragoza and the agricultural station at Albacete. The instruction 

 is to be given in three courses, the first two to continue from October 1 to 

 May 31, respectively, and the third, during the summer months, is to be devoted 

 to farm practice. Students obtaining the title Perito agricola will be eligible 

 to the position of assistant in the agricultural service. 



Collegiate Country-Life Club for Rural Leadership. — It is announced that a 

 national organization of the Collegiate Country-Life Club for Rural Leadership 

 has been completed. The organization has grown out of a study originally 

 carried on under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. in which the problems of 

 rural life and the relation to them of the college man was the chief subject of 

 consideration. The purpose of the organization is to win college men and 

 women to the farm, to interest them in the vitality of the life it offers, to 

 show them the possibilities of leadership in rural affairs, and to inspire them 

 to unite and work with the existing rural organizations. 



The Training-School Idea in Agriculture. — In regard to training schools in 

 agriculture. Dean L. H. Bailey, in his address before the rural education section 

 of the New York State Teachers' Association, recently said in part : 



" By eliminating the purposeless long vacation and maintaining a twelve 

 months' enterprise, such training schools or classes might be combined with 

 the existing public schools without loss of time to the pupil. These training- 

 schools or training-classes should be many, to meet the needs of the different 

 localities. They should be small units and strictly limited in the number of 

 pupils so that each pupil may receive the maximum of actual hand-training. If 



