44 TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



impossible for a student of average ability to fail to 

 obtain his diploma. 



In spite of the care taken to give as good a course as 

 possible and encouraging steady work by the students, 

 the system has failed in two respects. It has failed in 

 the first instance in popularity with the people of the 

 province, for the last session opened with one student 

 only coming forward, 6 and secondly, it has failed to 

 produce as good a type of man as expected. I have 

 carefully examined the causes which have led up to 

 the fall in popularity, and I attribute it to two causes : - 



(1) The lack of employment on a remunerative scale 

 for past students of the college. 



(2) The high standard of the course, for the generality 

 of Indian students and the hardships entailed on them in 

 keeping pace with it. The two are correlative. 



In the first place the public were notified that the 

 diploma of Licentiate in Agriculture of the Punjab 

 Agricultural College would be considered as equivalent 

 to the B.A. or B.Sc. of the Punjab University in 

 educational value in the selection of candidates for 

 employment in the provincial civil services. This 

 certainly stimulated recruitment, since the agricultural 

 course was only three years in length, whereas the B.A. 

 or B.Sc. course was one of four years. 



No encouragement has been given, however, to 

 students of the agricultural college to enter the magis- 

 terial and revenue services, as the authorities consider 

 that the college should be primarily a training ground 

 for agriculturists or specialists in agricultural science, 

 and not for revenue officials. 



The Punjab is for the most part farmed by a class of 

 peasant proprietors and men of small holdings. There 

 are very few large estates in existence similar to those 

 of the big zemindars of the United Provinces of Agra and 

 Oudh and of Bengal. Consequently, there is practically 



6 The latest newspaper report, May 13, 1014, states that a 

 similar position has arisen at the Agricultural College at Nagpur, 

 in the Central Provinces. A similar condition has been reached 

 in Bengal. 



