66 



since many men who have been trained in the West Indies, 

 and especially in Trinidad, are doing well in W'est Africa, 

 which, with Equatorial Africa generally, is one of the most, 

 if not actually the most, important tropical centres affecting 

 British interests in the world; and as it would be impossible 

 to train whites properly in Equatorial Africa, they must come 

 down to a Trinidad College as being the centre most accessible 

 and surrounded by the class of labour and conditions generally 

 most closely resembling those that prevail in West and 

 Equatorial Africa. 



I attach this importance to tropical Africa because we are 

 told that South Africa is getting drier every year, and that this 

 has generally been ascribed to the destruction of trees; and as 

 the Royal Commission on Indian Finance tells us that the mon- 

 soon to which India owes so much, and on which the food of 

 millions is dependent, is derived 1 from the heart of Africa, 1 not 

 only, therefore, is it necessary to make the question of the 

 deforestation of Africa a national one, but even an inter- 

 national one, as otherwise famine and death will come, sooner 

 or later, to Africa and India alike; and since we cannot train 

 our experts in Africa, I maintain that Trinidad or elsewhere in 

 the Western Hemisphere offers the most suitable site for an 

 Agricultural College for Englishmen going to Africa as well 

 as to the West Indies, and Latin-America generally. 



The following papers were taken as read : 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND ITS ADJUSTMENT TO 

 THE NEEDS OF THE STUDENTS. 



By FRANCIS WATTS, C.M.G., D.Sc., F.I.C., 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies. 



[ABSTRACT.] 



This paper, while dealing with the question in a general 

 manner, has as its basis the conditions of tropical agriculture 

 in the British West Indies. 



In discussing agricultural education there is often a want of 

 precision of thought as to the class of pupil under consideration 

 and the purpose for which he is to be trained; as a consequence 

 the training suggested is often ill-adjusted to the educational 

 and social status of the pupil and to his subsequent life's work. 



1 In the same way as Sir Ernest Shackleton tells us the ice season in 

 th Antarctic affects the rainfall of Chile and Argentina. 



