TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 47 



farmers' classes suitable for the actual cultivators of the 

 land, technical in character, and qualifying the students 

 attending them to become better farmers. Such classes 

 must of necessity be exceedingly simple, and in many 

 cases will give empirical methods of improvement worked 

 out on experimental stations and farms without going 

 into the underlying scientific principle on which these 

 improvements are based. They must in all cases be given 

 on such farms or by men who have been trained there, 

 for they rely for their success on a thorough acquaint- 

 ance with the practical difficulties to be met and overcome. 



(b) A course of instruction embodying' the best methods 

 of scientific investigation adopted in working out im- 

 provements. Such a course is of the highest possible 

 type, and can be given only by men who are engaged in 

 such investigations and at an institute fully equipped for 

 this class of work. Such an education as this places a 

 higher value on the student who has passed through it 

 as a technologist than as a mere educated man. Conse- 

 quently, the students passing through such a course as 

 this go on to apply in a direct manner the education they 

 have received. 



Between these two limits agricultural education 

 appears to result in the students afterwards taking to 

 other and sedentary pursuits. The expense of scientific 

 and technical education will not permit of this, and the 

 system should aim at the waste being limited to the 

 normal failures, which usually occur during the course. 

 It is my opinion, therefore, that in opening an agricul- 

 tural department in one of the colonies these principles 

 should be followed, firstly, the establishment of experi- 

 mental stations and laboratories necessary to collect the 

 large amount of information which is essential to future 

 progress. As these results begin to accumulate, the first 

 course of instruction referred to above can be commenced 

 with every prospect of it proving successful. For the 

 first few years at least the higher course of instruction 

 should be limited to the personal training obtainable 

 under the experts and specialists in the laboratories 

 attached to the experimental stations; and the colleges, 

 when they are started, should be started in a conservative 



