TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 4^5 



no demand for the services of past students as managers 

 of estates, and, indeed, during the past five years I have 

 not had more than a dozen inquiries for qualified men. 

 and only one or two of them offered anything like a 

 reasonable scale of pay, these latter offers coming from 

 other parts of India. This in no way reflects on the 

 students of the Punjab Agricultural College as compared 

 with other agricultural colleges in India, for the Research 

 Institute at Pusa, which has all India to choose from for 

 its staff, has shown a preference for my men. The 

 students themselves are mostly too poor to afford to 

 farm their own lands after undergoing this expensive 

 education. There consequently remains only 'employ- 

 ment in the Provincial Agricultural Service, and in this 

 their pay at present is on to-o low a scale to induce 

 healthy competition. The employment in the Punjab 

 Agricultural Service is at present limited to five or six 

 recruits a year. The question of improving the prospects 

 of these men is receiving the attention of Government, 

 and I hope to secure a scale of pay commensurate with 

 the time and money they have spent on their 'education 

 and the salaries commanded by young Indians of similar 

 educational attainments elsewhere. 



The second cause is undoubtedly an important one 

 also, for the students entering the agricultural college 

 possess such a poor knowledge of English and the sub- 

 jects of primary educational importance as to be unable 

 to assimilate the college lectures, at any rate for the first 

 six months or so. This is emphasized by the ease with 

 which students possessing a better education than that 

 of the University entrance standard can get ahead of 

 their fellow students. The difficulty which the students 

 consequently experience tends to lower the popularity of 

 the college. It cannot be said that the standard of 

 tuition is too high if we take into consideration the class of 

 men we are attempting to train men, that is to say, who 

 are to staff the departmental farms, to assist the expert 

 agriculturists in their district work, and to act as advisers, 

 demonstrators, and itinerant lecturers in the districts in 

 promulgating the methods of agricultural improvement. 



The natural inferences to be drawn are that either we 



