Scientific Agriculture, 



415 



[May, 1910. 



THE COLOUR OF BLACK COTTON 

 SOIL. 



By H. E. Annbtt, 



Member, Department of Agriculture, 

 India. 



(From the Chemical Series, Vol. I., No, 9, 

 March 1910.— Abstracted by 

 J. C. Willis.) 



The black cotton soil of India is the 

 second most important soil of the 

 country and covers at least 200,000 square 

 miles. After describing the experiments 

 in detail he comes to the conclusion that 

 the black colour is mainly due to the 

 presence of several per cent of titani- 

 ferous magnetite and 1-2 per cent, of 

 soluble humus. The soils are not rich 

 in organic matter judged from the 

 European standard. The amount of 

 clay is exceptionally high, and accounts 

 for the cracking that occurs In hot dry 

 weather. • 



These black cotton soils occur over 

 considerable areas in the north of Ceylon. 



WATER REQUIREMENTS OF CROPS 

 IN INDIA. 



By J. W. Leather, 

 Member, Department of Agriculture, 

 India. 



(From the Chemical Series, Vol. I., No. 8, 

 January, 1910.— Abstracted by 

 J. O Willis.) 



By means of pot cultures, answers 

 were sought to the questions: "How 

 much water is transpired by our field 

 crops?" and "During what period does 

 the crop require the principal portion of 

 this water ? " 



Among the most important conclusions 

 reached are that in suitably manured 

 soil the amount of transpiration is re- 

 duced by one-third, that good tillage (as 

 we have for years preached in this 

 country, where tillage is nearly un- 

 kuown outside of the Tamil country and 

 the planting districts) and a deep soil 

 reduce it also, and that in general the 

 longer lived crops have a higher ratio of 

 transpiration than those which mature 

 rapidly. The amount of water trans- 

 pired also rises rapidly when the plant 

 begins to shoot, and remains high till 

 near maturity, when it falls again 

 rapidly. 



EDUCATION. 



THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL 

 EDUCATION. 



1. The Essentials of Education. 



(From the Agricultural News, Vol, IX., 

 No, 205, March 5, 1910.) 

 One of the greatest advances in educa- 

 tional matters was made when it was 

 realised that the conditions of life had 

 so changed, and the work that had to 

 be done every day for the people of a 

 country had become so specialized, that 

 it was no longer feasible to educate its 

 inhabitants according to one broad 

 plan, the methods of which should be 

 generally applicable to all of them. 

 The increase of population, for one 

 matter, had made it necessary that the 

 things required for the daily life should 

 be produced on a large scale, by the aid 

 of machinery, rather than by individual 

 craftsmen, and the cheapening of the 

 products of the new mode of manu- 

 facture, together with the improved 

 conditions of living, had again reacted 

 by bringing about a state of affairs that 



further favoured the tendency for the 

 population of a country to increase at a 

 greater rate than that which had ever 

 obtained before. Competition became 

 keen, and it was seen that education 

 must no longer be simply a matter of 

 general preparation for living as an 

 adult, and of the provision of means for 

 inculcating the principles of discipline, 

 but that it must be conducted, for each 

 individual, in a manner which had 

 definite relation to that part of the 

 world's work to which his energies 

 would be devoted ultimately. 



The first effect of the realization of 

 this fact has been to cause much stress to 

 be laid on that side of education which 

 has for its object the production of 

 technical efficiency. There has been, in 

 fact, too great a tendency to give in- 

 struction, and to leave out most of that 

 which includes the essentials of true 

 education. *The result has been the pro- 

 duction of schemes which went little 

 further than to devise means for impart- 

 ing knowledge, so that, in relation to all 

 that is meant by education, no real 



