TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE I/ 



The advantages offered to the student of an agricultural 

 college over those afforded to the cadet lie rather in the 

 wider scope of general education than in advantages in 

 learning the art of agriculture; they imply that the 

 agricultural college student has larger resources in the 

 way of time and money, which he can afford to spend in 

 acquiring his training. On completing his training, it is 

 conceivable that the agricultural student from the college 

 may be less mature than the cadet; he will, however, have 

 had a wider education, and may be expected to be able 

 finally to advance to higher responsibilities than the 

 cadet. 



In affording training for the agricultural specialist the 

 agricultural college may be expected to achieve success, 

 for the requirements of the specialist may, to a large 

 extent, be taught in class-rooms and laboratories, aided 

 by such surroundings in the way of trial plots or experi- 

 mental stations as may be expected at a college. But 

 even in this work it is essential to have access to agricul- 

 tural matters in their broad practical aspects, for it will be 

 necessary to study the practical bearing of the various 

 scientific matters in which expert knowledge is acquired 

 and to which it is to be applied. 



It is clear, then, that agricultural colleges, in order to 

 be successful and to discharge their varied functions in 

 the way of educating for subsequent broad training Ihe 

 youths who are to become farmers and planters, and in 

 order to afford adequate training for agricultural 

 scientists, must be planned on very broad and generous 

 lines. They must be sufficiently large to warrant the 

 existence of competent and diversified staffs of teachers, 

 each of whom is thoroughly equipped to deal with his 

 special subject, and they must be in possession of, or 

 associated with, a considerable area of land on which the 

 staple agricultural industries of the country are carried 

 on on a commercial scale. These points imply that there 

 must be a comparatively large number of students in 

 order to justify the expenditure in providing the equip- 

 ment for their training, and there must also be assured a 

 demand for the services of the varied classes of students 

 turned out by the college. 

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