438 



NA TURE 



[September 3, 190S 



Not less remarkable is the increase in the amount of the 

 manufactures. In 1891 one building was sufficient to m- 

 clude a representative exhibit of the manufactures of the 

 district ; now it is difficult to compress such an exhibit into 

 nineteen buildings. Trade returns confirm the impression 

 which this comparison suggests. 



An inquiry naturally suggests itself into the causes of 

 ihis development. Recent years have certainly seen a great 

 awakening- of national life in Bohemia, but this alone 

 would not be sufficient to account for the commercial pros- 

 perity of the country. A better explanation is to be found 

 in the system of teclinical education which is being success- 

 fully worked in Bohemia. The scope and character of 

 this system is admirably displayed in a well-arranged 

 exhibit. Undoubtedly the Iceynote of the system is 

 " specialisation," a word which has no terrors for the 

 Bohemian, who is surprised that the exhibits from some 

 of the special schools — such, for example, as that from a 

 school for training barbers — should cause amusement to 

 the English visitor ; but, nevertheless, the fundamental 

 principle of the system seems to be sound. A boy's trade 

 is fixed, and whether or not he is apprenticed, he is trained 

 definitely for the selected trade, without too much insistence 

 on theoretical principles. If the boy is apprenticed he is 

 obliged to attend an industrial continuation school during 

 his apprenticeship. In these schools there are from six to 

 ten hours of instruction per week, the lessons being given 

 in the afternoons or early in the evening and on Sunday 

 mornings. The course lasts from two to four years. If 

 the boy is not apprenticed he is able to attend one of the 

 special schools {Fachschitlen) in which courses are pro- 

 vided, definitely talcing the place of the apprenticeship. 

 The industries included in the scope of these schools are 

 lace-making, w'ood-carving, carpentry, cabinet-making, 

 textile industries, baslcet-making, iron and steel work, 

 engineering, masonry, glass-making, hardware goods, 

 electro-engineering, locksmiths, musical instruments, 

 iewellery, precious stone setting, machine embroidery, 

 watch-making, and gun-making. 



Another interesting type of school is the general handi- 

 craft school, to which boys of twelve are admitted. The 

 aim is to give the boys a better preparatory training for 

 a trade than is possible in the ordinary elementary school. 

 Great stress is laid on drawing, and the boys are given 

 practical instruction in the preparation of materials for 

 wood and metal work. An experiment on these lines is 

 at present being conducted by the London County Council. 

 There are also higher industrial schools for well-prepared 

 pupils who require a higher training for art, chemical or 

 textile industries, building or engineering. In the larger 

 centres of population there arc central industrial institutes, 

 where work of the nature of research is carried on. 



The Austrian system of technical education is of special 

 interest at the present time, because there is undoubtedly 

 a tendency in England towards a higher degree of 

 specialisation in the work of technical schools. It is being 

 realised that an efficient system of technical education can- 

 not be organised by the erection all over the country of 

 technical institutes of the same type, with similar classes 

 and laboratories, staffed by the same type of teacher. 

 Some years ago it was discovered that mathematics could 

 be taught for the practical purposes of engineers in a prac- 

 tical way, without much insistence on abstract principles, 

 and since then a good deal of thought has been given to 

 the special educational requirements of the several indus- 

 Iries. Moreover, the educative value of the technical pro- 

 cesses themselves is being more fully recognised. Mr. 

 W. R. Lethaby, professor of design at the Roval College 

 of Art, in a paper read to the International Drawing 

 Congress on .August •^, deprecated the " elaborate 

 approaches to a nractical subject " at oresent in vogue. 

 "The great end," he said, "was production, the great 

 thing was the trade, the craft, and sufficient culture could 

 he hung uo to any sufficient tr.ade. . . . All proper educa- 

 tion was the ooening up of a necessary and beneficent life 

 occupation." This expresses in the clearest way the prin- 

 ciple which apnears to underlie the Austrian system of 

 technical education. The princiole may be stiemntised ns 

 utilitarian ; but anyone who doubts the practical success of 

 the system will be well advised to examine the exhibits at 

 the Prague Exhibition. T. Ll. H. 



NO. 2027, VOL. 78] 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL 



PLANTS.' 

 TN the Uiillctin de la Sociite d' Encouragement pour 

 ^ rindustrie nationale for May, M. Schribaux gives an 

 account of the methods adopted for obtaining new varieties 

 of agricultural plants. These methods fall into three 

 groups: — (i) careful watch is kept for "sports," i.e. for 

 plants which, for no obvious reason, differ from the others ; 

 (2) variation is induced by altering the conditions of 

 growth; (3) suitable plants are " crossed." 



The first method is necessarily haphazard, since sports 

 can obviously not be predicted ; it has, however, proved 

 very useful in the past, and has yielded many valuable 

 varieties of potatoes, of fruit trees, &c. The second method 

 promises very interesting results, for some plants respond 

 quickly to changes in their surroundings. M. Schribaux 

 sowed in a garden soil the seeds of the wild carrot, an 

 annual with a woody root. In two generations a certain 

 number had become biennials, with a fleshy root like the, 

 cultivated carrot. M. Blaringhem adopted quite a differentj 

 method with maize. Plants were cut down just as the ear 

 was beginning to develop, i.e. at the time of maximum 

 vital activity ; 76 per cent, of those surviving developed 

 abnormally. Some were permanently altered ; thus a late 

 Pennsylvania maize was converted into an early variety. 



.Another instance of great practical importance is 

 furnished by the vine. After struggling long and vainly 

 against Phylloxera, the French vine-growers have made up 

 their minds to live with it. M. Viala visited America and 

 brought bade some vines which Iiad become so differ- 

 entiated from those growing in France that they with- 

 stood the attacks of the pest. Unfortunately, they would 

 not grow on calcareous soils, but became very chlorotic, 

 and further search was made. Vines were in the end 

 discovered capable of withstanding Phylloxera and of grow- 

 ing on calcareous soils ; these have solved the problem for 

 the French grower. Perhaps the case of the sugar-beet is 

 most interesting. The grower requires roots containing a 

 large percentage of sugar, a low proportion of the accom- 

 panying salts, and capable of resisting adverse conditions. 

 The selection is made, in the first instance, on the basis 

 of the sugar content. .\ large number of roots can be 

 rejected by simple inspection, for high sugar content is 

 correlated with certain external features ; the other roots 

 are examined chemically, since it is found that removal of 

 a portion for this purpose does not interfere with subse- 

 quent growth. The very best are then cut up into a 

 number of pieces to be grafted into other roots : they pro- 

 duce seed, which is sown, and yields roots for further 

 selection. M. Schribaux states that a single root has 

 yielded sixty-four pieces, each capable of producing seed I 

 it is not surprising that the percentage of sugar has gone 

 up from n per cent, in 1870 to 16 per cent, or 18 per cent, 

 to-day. 



There is evidence, however, that the process will not 

 go on indefinitely, for roots containing more than 18 per 

 cent, of sugar cease to vegetate properly. Sir W. T. 

 Thiselton-Dyer discusses this aspect of the question in the 

 Journal of the Board of .Agriculture for April, taking the 

 potato as an illustration. Like the sugar-beet, the potato 

 has been the subject of continual selection, and the end 

 result is a highly artificial tuber of great commercial value 

 but difficult of cultivation. The practical man speaks of 

 degeneration, but Thiselton-Dver does not consider this to 

 be the case. He points out that the potato has been 

 induced to load itself with starch far in excess of any 

 natural requirement of the plant, and suggests that too 

 much is being demanded of the plant, and the machinery 

 for the processes of growth has reached its breaking point. 

 " We can control nature in altering the constitution of a 

 plant ; but eventually a barrier is reached beyond which it 

 is impossible to go." 



It is often found difficult to fix the new varieties obtained 

 by selection. Even when asexual reproduction is possible, 

 as in the ,case of trees and potatoes, the variation fre- 

 quently does not remain permanent, and many promising 

 varieties have disappeared. When reproduction is by seed 



^ (i) IhtlL de In SocuHe d' Enccura^enient pour rindustrie nationnie. 

 May, TQoR. 



(2) Jo:<riini of ihe PofirdofArricuUwc. .-\rril, inoB. 



(3) Joitrnnl of Agriculture 0/ South Australia, January', T908. 



