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native plants likely to be useful for food, green manuring and 
the like. It is to be hoped therefore that this state of affairs 
will soon be remedied and a careful survey of the native flora 
will be initiated by competent Economic Botanists. 
At Ibadan, agricultural instruction has been given to a certain 
number of native youths, but I doubt if the scheme has been 
given a proper chance of success. In order to inculcate an 
interest in the sciences of Horticulture and Agriculture, training 
should begin in the Elementary Schools. With a community 
like that of Nigeria, where Agriculture is the dominant industry, 
the training of the children in the elements of Horticulture and 
Agriculture should be commenced by means of properly organised 
school gardens. 
The syllabus of Agricultural Training in the Education Code 
of Nigeria provides for the instruction of children by the growing 
of such exotic plants as Para Rubber, Cocoa and Coffee, and 
neglects those native plants, familiar to the children, which are 
of economic value. At present, therefore, it seemed that very 
little good was being done in this direction and that there was 
a great need for better methods. 
It should be arranged for the school gardens, in which annual 
native and exotic plants ought to be grown, to be inspected 
regularly by officers of the Agricultural Department. The 
teachers should also be given lectures-at the Agricultural Experi- 
mental Stations, and an early interest should thus be promoted 
and a real education given in a subject on which the prosperity 
of the country so largely depends. 
After this preliminary introduction it would be possible to 
select a certain number of the more intelligent pupils and train 
them further at the Experimental Stations. In due course such 
scientifically trained boys should become competent farmers and 
agricultural inspectors and so serve to disseminate better farming 
methods throughout the country. 
The proper training of such boys necessitates the appointment 
of well-equipped permanent Curators of the Stations, who should 
competent not only to supervise the accurate conduct of the 
scientific experiments, but also to impart instruction to the 
_ pupils. 
The formation of local Agricultural Societies is another method 
of interesting the native farmers in the scientific principles under- 
lying agricultural practice, and also of enabling the Agricultural 
ripe cia to get in touch with and gain the confidence of the 
farmers 
I was impressed very forcibly by the fact that there was 
much to be learnt from a careful study of native farming methods, 
both in the Northern and in the Southern Territories, and that 
the surest way of discovering what may be of value and of 
inducing the natives to adopt improved methods is to gain their 
confidence and impress on them that it is only by their sith 8 
tion and help that ashe progress can be achieved. 
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