42 TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



laid down by the fourth Board of Agriculture at Pusa in 

 1908 in the form of a standard curriculum for provincial 

 agricultural colleges in India was started. A consider- 

 able amount of discussion had taken place on the subjects 

 of the curriculum, the length of the course, and the 

 entrance qualification of students. The curriculum itself 

 was enforced by the Local Government, though the 

 opinion of some of the members of the Staff was opposed 

 to much of its detail. In the absence of any experience 

 of Indian students and Indian conditions by these, how- 

 ever, it may be said to have been perhaps the best that 

 could be done at the time. It has shown the disadvan- 

 tages of binding an educational institute to a rigid course 

 of studies, and the results obtained at Lyallpur indicate 

 the necessity of rendering a curriculum based on Western 

 methods and translated to the Orient sufficiently mobile 

 and elastic to adapt itself to its new environment without 

 having at the same time to break through the iron bands 

 of officialism. The general experience throughout the 

 whole of these colleges in India can be said to have been 

 similar, and has found expression in the Proceedings of 

 the Meeting of the Board of Agriculture in 1913, held at 

 Coimbatore, where the abandonment of this curriculum 

 was advised, and the substitution for it of such courses 

 as would be felt to meet the requirements of the students 

 in the different provinces of India. It is with my experi- 

 ence in the Punjab with Punjab students and teaching 

 them the subject matter of this standard curriculum which 

 I propose to deal in this paper, and to draw from this 

 experience some generalizations which may serve as a 

 guide to other teachers rinding themselves placed in a 

 similar position. The course of studies laid down necesr- 

 sitated on the part of the students a working acquaint- 

 ance with the English language and some elementary 

 knowledge of arithmetic, elementary mathematics, and 

 the elements of general science (the latter being optional). 

 These could only be obtained in students who had 

 reached some recognized standard of general elementary 

 education, and the standard adopted was that of the 

 Entrance Examination (Matriculation) of the Punjab 

 University. Doubts were expressed both by the members 



