and no great outlay is needed for this purpose. Thriftiness 

 on the part of School and College authorities will be less 

 detrimental to agricultural education, than it now is to the 

 imparting of a sound knowledge of Chemistry or Physics. 

 As a means of developing the faculties of the mind, agricul- 

 tural education is far more valuable than even a sound 

 training in any one particular branch of science. If it is 

 contended that a preliminary knowledge of all the sciences 

 is necessary for a systematic study of agriculture, it may be 

 pointed out, that agriculture as a subject by itself, which can 

 be taught in a very easy manner and also in a very difficult 

 manner to students of various standards of education, is re- 

 cognised in all advanced countries, and that what is really 

 needed for a right understanding of agricultural science, is 

 only the science of every day life, which intelligent farmers of 

 Europe and America without any scientific training, find 

 sufficient to enable them to keep abreast with the times in 

 their own particular occupation. If a farmer has first to be 

 a chemist, and botanist, and geologist, and zoologist, and 

 engineer, he will never make money by farming. 



1,458. In the Introduction to this book, which is virtually 

 the inaugural lecture delivered at the Sibpur Engineering 

 College three years ago at -the opening of the Agricultural 

 Classes, we have expressed doubt as to the usefulness of high 

 caste Bengalis in the sphere of practical agriculture. After 

 three years' experience we have had ample reason for modify- 

 ing the opinion. The number of students seeking admission 

 into these classes who are really interested in agriculture is 

 steadily increasing, and the men who have passed out and 

 employed in agricultural work are doing such excellent work, 

 that we feel disposed to assert that English education will 

 have as much influence in remodelling and improving the 

 agricultural condition of the country, as it has had in other 

 walks of native Indian life. 



THE END, 



