August, 1912.] 



115 



POULTRY BREEDS AND AVERAGES. 



The following table shows details of the egg production of the various breeds 

 concerned and their averages at an Egg laying competition, South Australia, 1911-12. 



No, of 

 Pens. 



No. of 

 Birds. 



Breeds. 



Total Eggs 

 Laid. 



Average per 

 Pen, 



Average per 

 Hen. 



34 



204 



White Leghorns 



35.938 



1,057 '0 



176-16 



6 



24 



Silver Wyandottes .. 



4,611 



768-5 



128-08 



6 



24 



Black Orpingtous 



4,223 



703-8 



1173 



1 



6 



Langshans 



938 



938-0 



156-3 



COTTON FORECASTS. 



United States.— The condition of the 

 cotton crop on May 25th was 78'9 % of a 

 normal as compared with 87 8 % at the 

 same date last year, and with 81 5 % the 

 average condition on May 25th, for the 

 last 10 years. This month's condition is 

 equal to 97 on the Institute's scale against 

 108 at the same date last year. 



Africa. 



Egypt.— The low temperature during 

 May had an unfavourable influence on 

 the cotton crop which has now lost the 

 advance that it had gained. 



The cotton worm has appeared to a 

 small extent in the Delta, and the boll 

 worm is prevalent in one province of 

 Lower Egypt.— Bulletin of Agricultural 

 Statistics. 



EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



For some time past, the need has been 

 felt in the West Indies for improvement 

 in the educational methods employed, 

 in rural schools particularly. The same 

 circumstance has existed in Great Brit- 

 ain, where a stage in progress has been 

 marked recently by the issue of a 

 Memorandum on the Principles and Me- 

 thods of Rural Education by the Board 

 of Education, England. In England, the 

 distinctions between the circumstances 

 surrounding schools in towns and those 

 in the country are much greater than the 

 differences which obtain in the West 

 Indies, where almost all commercial 

 effort ia directly 



CONNECTED WITH AGRICULTURE. 



The same general principles apply 

 nevertheless in both cases, and actually 

 in a broader degree in the West 

 Indies ; and it will be well to see in what 

 way several of the matters in the Memo- 

 randum mentioned may be made useful 

 in regard to West Indian conditions. 



Dealing first with rural elementary 

 schools, there has been in late years, in 

 England, a desire to make the teaching 

 more practical in nature and, although 

 this has been effected from small begin- 

 nings, many of the schools employ in 

 large measure the 



GREAT WEALTH OP MATERIAL 



supplied by the conditions surround- 

 ing them. In such cases the teacher is 

 continuing to receive education, in the 

 best sense, at the same time as the pupil, 

 and the chief requisites for his success 

 are a real interest in the affairs in which 

 he finds himself placed and willingness 

 and courage to undertake experiments 

 and to benefit by what others may have 

 to teach him. 



It has been pointed out already in this 

 journal that the chief effort in such 

 matters should be to make the teaching 

 possess an intimate connexion with the 



DAILY CIRCUMSTANCES WITH WHICH THE 

 PUPIL COMES INTO CONTACT. 



The adoption of this method will 

 supply abundant material for dealing 

 with nearly all the subjects that 

 are commonly found in the curri- 

 culum of an elementary school. Further, 

 a lively interest will be given to these 

 subjects, in that the pupil will be made 

 to see in what way they are of use to 

 him ia the conditions of the ordinary 



