CHAPTER V 



EDUCATION OF THE PEASANT, AND ITS BEARING 

 UPON AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS 



THE thorny subject of education must be lightly touched 

 upon, on account of its very important bearing upon agriculture. 

 Education of the native produces in him new wants, to gratify 

 which he must in some way earn more money. In this way, 

 consequently, education may do much to break up the simplicity 

 of the old self-sufficient villagers' garden type of agriculture, 

 the defects of which were considered in the last chapters. It 

 must, however, be of a nature to guide the peasant towards 

 agricultural pursuits, and encourage him in them. 



As yet, in the East, at any rate, the general effect of educating 

 the native seems to be to encourage his tendency to despise 

 agricultural pursuits, and more especially personal hand-labour. 

 If he receive more than a mere elementary vernacular education, 

 he wants to go off to the towns, and become a clerk, a house 

 servant, anything rather than an agriculturist. It is not difficult 

 to understand this attraction of the towns and town life; the 

 same thing is equally common in Europe and even in the newer 

 countries like Canada and Australia. 



The main question to be considered here is whether any- 

 thing can be done in the education of the children or adults to 

 help forward the attainment of the agricultural ideals which 

 were indicated in a previous chapter. 



All experience in the tropics seems to point to the fact that 

 but little can be done in the way of direct " education " of the 

 adult native, though much may often be effected by example 

 or demonstration. The question of giving direct agricultural 

 instruction to adults, otherwise than by demonstration, seems 



