1 8 TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



Having these considerations in view, it is evident that 

 it will be inexpedient to attempt to establish agricultural 

 colleges in small communities or in places where com- 

 munication is in any way restricted; such institutions 

 must, for success, be placed in prominent centres of 

 thought and agricultural effort. 



It would be of immense advantage if an agricultural 

 college could be associated with an institution devoted 

 to the work of agricultural research; indeed, agricultural 

 research would be the vital stimulus of a healthy, active 

 group of men charged with the duties of educating along- 

 various lines the students already referred to. 



In planning an agricultural college, therefore, it will 

 be of great service if the fundamental ideas can be so 

 enlarged as to include both for the professional staff as 

 well as for the advanced students the definitely considered 

 duty of research. In the minds of many who seek the 

 aid of scientific experts in agricultural subjects there 

 exists, in a more or less pronounced degree, the idea 

 that knowledge concerning most of the operations and 

 requirements of the farm or plantation is fairly full and 

 complete, and that a competent adviser should be able, 

 with comparatively little effort, to give at short notice a 

 satisfactory answer to most inquiries presented to him; 

 it is little realized how scientific knowledge has grown in 

 the last half century, and how in this growing knowledge 

 wider vistas of the unknown and unexplored have come 

 into view. Only those who are working and teaching 

 along the lines of the forefront of agricultural knowledge 

 fully recognize how much there is now that demands 

 investigation and experiment for elucidation. An institute 

 of agricultural research appears to such perhaps to be 

 more of a necessity than an agricultural college, but it is 

 also clear to them, and perhaps to the majority, that an 

 institute of agricultural research would be the ideal 

 organization on which to engraft agricultural teaching. 



A further useful association on the part of an agricul- 

 tural college, particularly for purposes of teaching and 

 training, is an intimate connection with a Department of 

 Agriculture of the kind now to be found in many colonies. 

 The work of a Department of Agriculture brings it into 



