Education. 



144 



[February, 1912. 



rupee works out at 150 per cent per. 

 annum, a rate which certainly seems 

 extortionate though its actual yield is 

 small on small sums. But, when every 

 allowance has been made for occasional 

 philanthropy in the mahajan and for 

 the circumstances which makes him a 

 greed and exacting financier for the 

 poor, any proposal to associate him 

 with the co-operative credit movement 

 requires very careful examination. We 

 gather from Mr. Cumming's speech that 

 the Government are influenced in pro- 

 nouncing against hostility to the maha- 

 jan by two motives. On the one hand, 

 they recognise that the opposition of 

 the money-lender will be a serious 

 obstacle in the way of the extension of 

 the co-operative credit societies. In 

 many places he has thrown all his power 

 into the scale against the new move- 

 ment, and, as the ryot is well aware 

 that, even as a member of a co-operative 

 credit society, he may require help from 

 the mahajan for weddings and other 

 expensive ceremonies on which co-oper- 

 ative credit societies frown, the result is 

 that he decides to stick to the mahajan 

 and avoid the co-operative credit society. 

 To overcome the money-lender's opposi- 

 tion the Government propose to treat 

 him in a friendly manner. Another 

 point which must be given due weight is 



that the mahajan will be a convenient 

 person from whom co-operative credit 

 societies can obtain capital without 

 assistance from public funds. These 

 considerations are cogent enough so far 

 as they go, but the question remains 

 whether it will be conducive to the best 

 interests of co-operative credit to link 

 the mahajans as a class with a move- 

 ment which is directed against impro- 

 vident borrowing and against usury. 

 There is a danger that some money- 

 lenders would utilise their connection 

 with a co-operative credit society as a 

 means of facilitating dealings with its 

 members, so that a ryot might borrow 

 openly from his society and secretly from 

 the mahajan. Such a proceeding would 

 not be good for the society cr the 

 boriower. Further, it will be difficult 

 for the members of a co-operative credit 

 society, borrowing capital from a maha- 

 jan to realise that they are engaged in a 

 movement which make for thrift and 

 independence. Nor can the possibility 

 be overlooked that a mahajan may lure 

 a co-operative credit society into hope- 

 less debt as effectively as a single 

 borrower. We are satisfied that the 

 new development foreshadowed by 

 Mr. Cumming will need to be vigilantly 

 watched. 



EDUCATION. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 

 THE UNIVERSITY AND THE 

 SCHOOL. 



(From Nature, No. 2195, Vol. 88, 

 November 23, 1911.) 

 When the council of the Reading 

 University College decided to develop 

 their agricultural department, they very 

 wisely began by taking stock of the 

 situation, and in view of the report of 

 the departmental committee appointed 

 by the Board of Agriculture to investi- 

 gate agricultural education in England 

 and Wales, they dpcided to go abroad 

 for information, For the report con- 

 fesses that the majority of English 

 farmers are not reached by the agri- 

 cultural colleges at all ; indeed, one 

 witness went so far as to assert that not 

 more than 5 per cent, of the farmers of 

 England are directly affected by them. 



Agricultural colleges have, however, 

 gained the confidence of the farmers of 

 Canada and the United States. A de- 

 putation appointed by the college there- 



fore visited the Macdonald College, St. 

 Anne de Bellevue ; the Central Experi- 

 mental Farm, Ottawa ; the Ontario Agri- 

 cultural College, Guelph ; and the Cornell 

 ai.d Wisconsin Universities in the 

 States, to discover what features these 

 institutions possess that enable them to 

 gain the confidence of the farmer. At 

 all the institutions the question of rural 

 life as a whole is frankly dealt with, and 

 women's courses, as well as men's are 

 arranged. Taking as a good example 

 the Guelph College : there is a woman's 

 institute where a complete training for 

 rural life is afforded to women ; there 

 are altogether thirteen hundred men and 

 women students, a third of whom are 

 taking t he full diploma or degree course ; 

 and there is so great a bond between 

 the college and the farmer that during 

 June, 1910, more than 40,000 agricul- 

 turists visited, or were expected to visit, 

 the plots and demonstrations. In 1900, 

 the college conducted definite experi- 

 mental work on nearly 5,000 faims. 

 Further, the college has about eleven 

 official missionaries in the province : 



