May, 1910,] 



416 



Education. 



advance was made on the old system. 

 Under the former conditions, the in- 

 dividual attained to a wider experience, 

 and little interference was made with 

 the chances for his later specialization, 

 while the new method limited him from 

 the first, and did less to provide him 

 with the means of liberally enjoying his 

 leisure. Another result has been that 

 whatever has had relation to the more 

 mechanical arts and crafts has been 

 fostered, to the comparative neglect, 

 until recent years, of the claim of the 

 agriculturist to be fitted in the best 

 possible way for the work which is to be 

 his through life. Perhaps this late re- 

 cognition of such a claim is not without 

 its advantages, for it has come at a time 

 when it is continually realised to a 

 greater degree that mere instruction is 

 not education, and that the aim of those 

 who have the framing of schemes for edu- 

 cation in their hands should not be the 

 training of individuals to be merely 

 capable of doing a certain thing in a 

 certain way. Such schemes should, on 

 the contrary, bring out the mental 

 energies of those individuals, so that 

 they may be able to appreciate the true 

 inward meaning of what they are 

 taught, and to attain that mental in- 

 dependence which will lead to critical 

 consideration of the work of others, 

 while giving them the capacity usefully 

 to extend the scope of their own. 



The West Indies share with all other 

 tropical countries the circumstance 

 that their interests are essentially agri- 

 cultural. Their usefulness to the rest of 

 the world must lie in the fact that they 

 possess the conditions which enable them 

 to produce, for the non-tropical zones, in- 

 dispensable articles of food, clothing and 

 shelter. It must therefore be patent 

 that the education of the inhabitants of 

 this part of the world must have special 

 reference to the interests of agriculture. 

 This cannot mean that the standard of 

 that education should be inferior to that 

 of the dweller in countries where the 

 chief occupation is the treatment of raw 

 material, so that it may become more 

 directly applicable to the uses cf man. 

 The agriculturist, as a matter of fact, 

 has the means of true education closer 

 to hand than the follower of any other 

 kind of occupation. He is face to face 

 with the direct results of the forces of 

 nature. He is met with the responsi- 

 bility of attaining a state of mind that 

 can devise means of gaining a knowledge 

 of those forces which will enable him to 

 direct them in such a way as to be of 

 the greatest value to mankind. Finally, 

 to this end, he is provided with oppor- 

 tunities of observation and experiment 



which are without equal as a means ct 

 broadening his mental sympathies, aud 

 thus giving him the manner of true 

 education. With these advantages, 

 there should be no difficulty in making 

 agricultural teaching and practice as 

 efficient as those of any other branch of 

 knowledge. It will supply a mental 

 training that will produce the individual 

 who takes a living interest aud pride in 

 his work, the more so as it provides him 

 with a means of realising that he is no 

 longer the slave of routine, but the 

 possessor of powers to originate and 

 modify methods of procedure in ways 

 which form the reflection of his own 

 personality. 



There are three broadly differing sets 

 of circumstances under which instruc- 

 tion, either of an agricultural nature, or 

 leading to this, must be given. These 

 obtain in the primary school, in the 

 secondary school, and, in the case where 

 an agricultural training is continued 

 after the pupil has reached an age when 

 there is no longer any necessity for him 

 to be subject to school discipline. In 

 the primary school the teaching will 

 never be of a directly agricultural 

 character, it will, rather, be of the 

 essence of nature study, in order that 

 the most useful and immediately appli- 

 cable means of education may be 

 employed, and that the mind of the 

 pupil may become of use to him in the 

 work that he will be called upon to do 

 when he leaves school. The idea of 

 nature study will obtain as well in the 

 secondary school, but its scope will be 

 widened, and it will show a closer 

 connection with the requirements of 



Eractical agriculture. In the case of a 

 oy who goes on from this stage to the 

 next, there is always, in a proper scheme 

 of agricultural education, a transition 

 period, during which he is still subject 

 to disciplinary measures, while at the 

 same time, he is given more freedom of 

 action, and his work becomes of a more 

 practical nature. It is at this stage that 

 a cadetship at a Botanic Station, or, 

 where this is provided, and where it is 

 intended to take up the more advanced 

 branches of agriculture, a course at an 

 agricultural college becomes of use 



The third set of circumstances under 

 which education in agricultural matters 

 is received, is that which obtains while 

 the recipient is actively eagaged in the 

 work of a practical agriculturist. This 

 is not a time that has its distinct limit, 

 like that of the conditions just described. 

 It extends just as long as the agri- 

 cultural work is being done. In other 

 words, those who gain their livelihood 

 from the soil require more than any 



