176 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. Ill 



and they help to introduce into the district products which are 

 new to it. 



The produce of the garden may be divided among the 

 masters and pupils, reserving a small portion for seed. Prizes 

 should be offered for the best gardens, attention being paid to 

 ornamental laying out and gardening as well as to the practical 

 side of the work, for it is important to develop a love of flowers 

 and of the country and its beauty, to help to check the tendency 

 to desert the country for the towns. 



Object lessons, or Nature-study lessons upon the work of 

 the garden and the plants contained in it, and upon the various 

 natural objects of interest in the neighbourhood, should be given 

 by the school- masters when competent to do so, at first under 

 the immediate eye of the Inspector. All work and instruction 

 should of course be conducted in the vernacular. 



The expense of the scheme is and should remain small. 

 The actual work being carried out by masters and pupils, there 

 is only the cost of tools, of the Inspector and his travelling, of 

 a stock garden for supplies at head-quarters, and a few small 

 prizes. 



By some such method as this it may be hoped that the 

 younger generation may be induced to take more intelligent 

 interest in, and have more respect for, agricultural pursuits and 

 country life. If adopted, the scheme should be first put into 

 practice in selected schools whose masters are keen upon doing 

 such work ; the work should be made an alternative subject in 

 the school curriculum, and in Government examinations, etc., 

 in order to increase its prestige a most important point in 

 getting natives of the tropics to interest themselves in anything 

 of the kind. 



The more definite teaching of agriculture and allied subjects 

 in the higher schools and colleges under the Department of 

 Public Instruction is a subject for later consideration, when 

 the elementary schools have paved the way. Practical outdoor 

 work and direct technical instruction in agriculture should 

 accompany any such scheme ; the high school boys, in the 

 tropics particularly, tend to despise such work, and acquire a 

 smattering of book knowledge of agriculture which is of little 



