IN A UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM 25 



ditions of service in the Indian Agricultural Department 

 are distinctly attractive, and the regulations have been 

 framed to encourage applications from University 

 graduates. Thus in Regulation 3 it is stated that 

 * preference is given to distinguished graduates of some 

 University in the British Empire '. That the Govern- 

 ment of India have given effect to these declarations is 

 proved by the fact that of the thirty-four technical posts 

 filled since the Department was created, twenty-five 

 have gone to University Graduates, of whom the Agri" 

 cultural Departments of Cambridge and Edinburgh have 

 supplied sixteen. It need excite no surprise that, with 

 no school of training, Oxford has not supplied a single 

 candidate for these Imperial posts, nor, so far as I can 

 learn, has she fared much better in regard to appoint- 

 ments in the other British possessions and Colonies that 

 I have named. In Ireland and Scotland the result has 

 been the same ; only in England has she supplied three 

 workers in Agricultural Science Chemistry applied to 

 Agriculture in each case though it must be admitted 

 that these are in the front rank. 



The position of affairs, then, is that Oxford is standing 

 aside, and is taking little part in the supply of workers 

 in the field of Agricultural Science at home or abroad. 

 I quite understand that the traditions of the place are on 

 the side of idealism, while the study of Agricultural 

 Science stands unblushingly self-declared as utilitarian, 

 It may be that modern tendencies are wrong, and that 

 Departments of Government and bodies of electors 

 ought to place more confidence in Oxford traditions, and 

 in the inherent worth of conventional study. But facts 

 must be faced as we find them, and the plain fact is that 

 Oxford men are not being sought after for the kind of 

 post that we have been considering. Personally, I should 



