AGKICULTUKAL EDUCATION 137 



not a lavish provision for a population of 30,000,000, 

 but it meets with the present demand for such edu- 

 cation in English, and the colleges are freely resorted 

 to by the sons of the larger land-owners and of pro- 

 fessional men who wish to take up farming on modern 

 lines or to find employment in some technical depart- 

 ment of Government. The agricultural and veterin- 

 ary departments of the Bombay Presidency are re- 

 cruited from the graduates of these colleges, many of 

 whom, also, join the staff of neighbouring Provinces 

 and States or of more distant regions such as Burma, 

 Assam and Ceylon. Some have even secured positions 

 as skilled agriculturists in distant parts of Asia and 

 Africa. For the sons of ordinary substantial culti- 

 vators special agricultural schools have been estab- 

 lished in various tracts where a two year course in prac- 

 tical agriculture is given, with sufficient theoretical 

 instruction to enable the boys to understand the mean- 

 ing of the practices that they are called upon to follow. 

 The boys are boarded and lodged free, and instruction 

 is given in the local vernacular. At present there are 

 only six such schools in the Bombay Presidency, but 

 Government have approved of a scheme to provide an 

 agricultural school for each district in the near future, 

 as finances permit. In the abstract these schools 

 appeal strongly to popular sentiment, but to ordinary 

 cultivators the idea of boarding schools is unfamiliar, 

 and there is no great rush of pupils to attend them. 

 The advantages to be derived from them are bound 

 to be realised as time goes on, and their influence on 



