298 



improvements of every kind, and that its continued rapid 

 advance should be provided for. 



Another most pleasing feature in connection with the pro- 

 gress of education is the extent to which the taste for field 

 sports and manly exercises is spreading among the school- 

 going population and the youth of the country. The advance 

 made in this direction during the last ten years has been re- 

 markable and is calculated to dispel the fears which were 

 once entertained in regard to the danger of the mental strain 

 caused by the new exotic education resulting in stunted 

 growth and deteriorated physique. 



103. Agricultural education is, of course, of the greatest 

 importance in this country, where 90 per 



Agricmtttral education. ^, p., ,,. ••,i -r- 



cent. 01 the population is either engaged m 

 agriculture or in subsidiary operations connected with this 

 industry, and this question has much occupied the attention of 

 the Madras Government since 1871, when the Saidapet Agri- 

 cultural Farm and School were established. There cannot 

 be the slightest doubt as to the duties and responsibi- 

 lities of Government in the direction of improving agri- 

 cultural methods both on account of the intimate association 

 of it with land, the revenue derived from which forms the 

 mainstay of Indian finance, and because the bulk of the land 

 is held in small farms by peasant proprietors who are too 

 poor and dispirited to depart from established routine and 

 adopt new processes without aid and encouragement from 

 Government. The results from the point of view of improved 

 processes and scientific agriculture have not perhaps been 

 commensurate with the efforts made, though there is not 

 much reason for disappointment when the economic condi- 

 tions applicable to the case are taken into account. In all 

 countries improvements in agriculture are made slowly and 

 by insensible degrees, and as Mr. Thorold Rogers has pointed 

 out, even in England it took a hundred years to naturalize 

 turnip culture, and nearly as long to diffuse the principle of 

 artificial selection in cattle. The conditions under which 

 agriculture has to be practised in this country difier so totally 

 from those of England that it can hardly be expected that 

 the development of this industry will follow the same lines 

 in the two countries. The two most important respects in 

 which the conditions differ are — first, that whereas in England 

 one of the main problems of agriculture is getting rid of 

 excessive moisture, in this country the difficulty lies in obtain- 

 ing and retaining moisture for the growth of ..crops, the 

 former being, of course, much more capable of regulation and 

 much less dependent upon fortuitous circumstances not 



