400 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



made available for dispersal, all improvement in native agricul- 

 tm^e, both for subsistence and for export, must come through the 

 medium of education, both of children in schools and of adults 

 through the medium of agricultural departments. The discussion 

 of African educational systems as a whole, falls outside the scope 

 of this volume, but a few notes may be given on certain aspects 

 of agricultural education, namely general education in agri- 

 culture designed to improve the technique of African farmers, 

 and special education designed to produce expert native agri- 

 culturalists. 



As a means of promoting the general improvement of farming, 

 there is a hope that school teaching in agriculture may prove effec- 

 tive in some areas, but more faith is usually placed in the develop- 

 ment of demonstration plots in which adult farmers may see the 

 results, combined with the employment of African demonstrators 

 as part of the organization of each agricultural department. In 

 some territories, for example Uganda, it is considered that more 

 still can be done by personal advice given to chiefs by agricultural 

 officers. With the majority of African natives the effort required to 

 break down tradition is enormous. Therefore the agricultural 

 demonstrator must be quite sure of the value of the methods 

 which he tries to substitute, since failure in a trial area creates a 

 widespread prejudice against other innovations. 



Demonstration plots are now established as part of the organiza- 

 tion of agricultural departments in nearly every territory, and in 

 some there have been big developments in recent years. For 

 example, in Southern Rhodesia the Department of Native De- 

 velopment inaugurated in 1927 a scheme for the special training of 

 native agricultural demonstrators, and already results have been 

 fruitful, as described by Alvord (1930). A three-year course is 

 taken at special government institutions, after which the students 

 are absorbed into the department, and work mostly in the native 

 reserves. There are now some forty-five of these trained men and a 

 big increase in the number of demonstration plots has been pos- 

 sible. The Lake Province of Tanganyika may be mentioned as 

 the site of an experiment in the so-called ideal native holdings. The 

 individual native holdings are from ten to twenty-five acres in 

 extent, and are all supervised by European agricultural assistants. 



