TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 9 



The system may approximate to one of apprenticeship, 

 though the use of this term, particularly in some of the 

 West Indian Colonies, has connotations rendering it 

 undesirable. 



In most Colonies there are botanic gardens and 

 agricultural experiment stations where there is a con- 

 siderable amount of routine work, much of which is 

 capable of being done by agricultural pupils drafted from 

 the elementary schools. The work carried on in these 

 institutions necessarily has a close connection with the 

 agriculture of the neighbourhood, so that pupils can be 

 trained in work that has real association with the local 

 agricultural industries, and they may be trained to acquire 

 a fair perception of the needs of these industries. Their 

 training may consist chiefly in carrying out routine opera- 

 tions and in learning to perform these intelligently and 

 dexterously. In order to minimize the danger of these 

 pupils drifting down and being regarded merely as 

 labourers, as well as to increase their usefulness, it is 

 necessary that they receive a certain amount of theoretical 

 instruction in addition to their acquiring manual dexterity 

 in agricultural operations. This may be accomplished 

 by giving an hour's class instruction daily, or perhaps 

 preferably, by devoting one day a week to this form of 

 instruction. The instruction so given should be calculated 

 to afford an insight into the reasons underlying the 

 operations of a practical character in which they are 

 engaged. 



It is desirable that pupils of this class should receive a 

 small monetary payment by way of subsistence allowance ; 

 the amount must be regulated by local conditions, it 

 should increase progressively, say, half yearly, and the 

 acquirement of the increment should be contingent on 

 diligent work and good behaviour. 



It is undesirable that these pupils should be boarded 

 and fed at the institution where they are trained; they 

 and their parents or guardians should make arrangements 

 for their living under conditions having the approval of 

 the authorities responsible for their training. These 

 conditions will much more closely approximate to those 

 in which the pupils find themselves on faking up wage- 



