May, 1910,1 



422 



Education. 



The income is limited to ten cents per 

 capita, thus Massachusetts would receive 

 about $325,000 for this purpose. He 

 thought that the Bill would not be likely 

 to pass this season, but it was being 

 pushed by interested parties, and would, 

 no doubt, soon become a law. 



Robert Cameron iuquired how far 

 this agricultural school would carry a 

 boy. Would he be able to analyze soil 

 and water ? He further asked what the 

 boys would be able to do after being 

 graduated from the agricultural school 

 rather than the high school. 



Pres. Butterfield replied that people 

 very often mistake the work of a farmer. 

 Analyze soil and water is the province of 

 the man in the laboratory and not the 

 farmer, In training farmers we do not 

 make chemists of them ; we do try 

 to make them understand the funda- 

 mental principles of farming. He said 

 that in some cases in the college 

 work men do not get the best results. 

 Some were not fitted or were in- 

 capable of making a success of the 

 vocation. The ideal of the college stand- 

 ing back of its graduates had not been 

 reached. A boy who is quite capable of 

 doing the required work in good shape 

 in the college might, when placed in a 

 position where he must do the real work 

 and make it a success, be a failure. He 

 said that he thought the course in an 

 agricultural college could be fuither 

 developed by requiring that every boy 

 should have had at least one summer of 

 practical work in managing a firm. 



AGRICULTURAL TEACHING FOR 

 THE RYOT. 



(Prom the Indian Agriculturist, Vol. 

 XXXIV., No. 8, August 2, 1909.) 

 It has often been said that the chief 

 problem of Agricultural Departments in 

 this country is how to get the results of 

 experiment and research to the know- 

 ledge of the ryot. To establish certain 

 conclusions at Pusa is one thing ; to 

 place these achievements at the disposal 

 of the actual cultivators of the soil is 

 another and much more difficult matter. 

 The question has for some years been 

 engaging the attention of the officers 

 concerned, and in the recently issued 

 Report of the Board of Agriculture a 

 brief account is given of the discussion 

 on the subject held in Nagpur last Febru- 

 ary. The symposium, as it may per- 

 haps be called, centered on the report of 

 a Committee which had considered the 

 best means of reaching the ryot. Dr. 

 Mann, by whom the recommendations 

 of the Committee were brought up, has 



long been an enthusiastic advocate of 

 popularising experimental results, and 

 no exception can be taken to his state- 

 ment of the general principles on which 

 attempts to educate the masses must be 

 based if they are to be successful. Who- 

 ever wishes to teach the ryot must 

 have a personality which will win confi- 

 dence. He must have an accurate know- 

 ledge of local conditions. The peasantry 

 everywhere in the world are inclined to 

 doubt whether a stranger's theories will 

 apply to their part of the country, and 

 if this initial distrust is to be overcome, 

 it can only be by showing an exact 

 familiarity with what the peasant him- 

 self knows. The methods which it is 

 sought to introduce should be such as 

 will pay a profit when the increased cost 

 has been taken into account. Dr. Mann 

 also insisted upon the necessity of ena- 

 bling the ryot to get capital at a cheaper 

 rate by means of agricultural banks and 

 similar organisations. The financial 

 aspects of the improvement of agricul- 

 ture must undoubtedly be kept in mind 

 from first to last. It would be dubious 

 kindness to induce the ryot to adopt a 

 new method which, though profitable 

 under ideal conditions, was more costly 

 to him than his own familiar way. It 

 is, moreover, idle to obtain great results 

 on experimental farms by the use of 

 manures or appliances which are beyond 

 the means of the ryot, As bearing on 

 this point we note with interest that 

 the Director of Agriculture in Eastern 

 Bengal and Assam, in sketching the 

 work to be undertaken on the agricul- 

 tural stations, says: — "The scheme of 

 sugarcane experiments has been re- 

 modelled with a view to (a) the existing 

 soil conditions of the farms, (6) the 

 limited resources of local ryots. It is 

 considered that heavy doses of oil cake 

 and other expensive manures are not 

 within the means of ordinary ryots and 

 prejudice whatever good results may be 

 obtained on the farms. At Rajshahi 

 and Jorhat it is therefore proposed to 

 experiment with a view to find the best 

 cane for local conditions with the manu- 

 rial treatment most generally in vogue in 

 the neighbourhood." This new scheme 

 is obviously on the right lines, though it 

 is plain that the improvement of 

 manures, with a due regard to the 

 means of the ryot is a most important 

 branch of agricultural reforms. Dr. 

 Mann's final recommendation was that 

 efforts at agricultural improvement 

 should be concentrated on small areas 

 and on problems of a definite character. 

 This suggestion is fully in accord with 

 the policy which its author pursued 

 when he served as Scientific Officer of 

 the Indian Tea Association and which 



