Education 109 



I am goinfi[ to venture to propose that . . . we should 

 commence this work at the foundation [that is, among the 

 lower classes of agriculturists — Ed. Tropical Life] .... 

 because we have felt that unless we can see our way to 

 create widespread developments of interest in better tillage 

 on the part of the mass of the people who do not, as a rule, 

 proceed to the higher branches of education, we must 

 inevitably fail to achieve the great result I have ventured 

 to lay before you, viz., the improvement of the agricultural 

 methods of the country at large." 



This, of course, refers to India with its millions oivyots, 

 and an overcrowded population. Elsewhere in the Empire 

 it will be best to begin at the top, and train the future 

 planters, scientists and plant-doctors at the agricultural 

 colleges so generally asked for — " one in the West, say 

 Trinidad, and one in the East, say Ceylon," and through 

 their successful example induce the small proprietors to 

 adopt up-to-date methods, by being able to show them 

 how it pays to do so. Even with India Sir Claude Hill 

 emphasized the great and pressing need for properly 

 trained teachers, and these can never be forthcoming 

 without agricultural colleges in the Tropics as we have 

 in India. " \\'e shall," Sir Claude urged, "have to con- 

 sider whether we cannot, in conjunction with the agri- 

 cultural educational institutions, organize arrangements 

 analogous to the normal schools of educational depart- 

 ments for the training of teachers to take charge of agri- 

 cultural schools. . . . The ultimate goal I put before 

 myself is one agricultural high school," &c., &c. . . . and 

 so the tale goes on, but we must stop. At the same time 

 our readers will note that the whole of this programme 

 hangs on the existence of a more advanced system of 

 scientific education and of its being carried out " in con- 

 junction with the agricultural educational institutions," 

 i.e., agricultural colleges. 



One word in conclusion about the agricultural colleges, 

 and it is this : Cinderella went to the ball three times, and 

 on each occasion, we are told, in a more attractive dress 

 than before, and in the end, &c., she married the Prince 

 and lived happily ever after. We trust that it will be the 

 same with the agricultural colleges in Ceylon and Trinidad. 

 Three times now has the matter been given prominence. 

 Firstly, by the suggestion of Professor Wyndham Dunstan 

 at the late Mr. John Ferguson's lecture in December, 

 1910, before the Royal Colonial Institute, followed by our 

 article on the subject ; secondly, by a petition sent home 



