Education. 



244 



[March, 1912. 



Of 1,769 pupils from whom full parti- 

 culars are available, it will be seen that 

 1,631 are known to have returned to 

 occupations connected with the land, 

 and the great majority are engaged in 

 farming. The "others" number 138, and 

 include a good many who have been lost 

 sight of and may have taken to agricul- 

 ture. As regards parentage it will be 

 observed that 969 were the sons or 

 daughters of farmers, and a further 173 

 were connected with the land. It will 

 be remarked that the largest proportion 

 of pupils of non-agricultural origin is 

 to be found in the first group of agri- 

 cultural colleges shown above, the reason 

 being that residential colleges in the 

 country, with farms attached, are always 

 preferred by non-agriculturists who 

 wish to secure an agricultural training 

 for their children. One College, which 

 would have been included in Group 2 

 if particulars of the occupations of 

 students had been available, is some- 

 what exceptional in that the parents of 

 55 out of 79 pupils were not directly 

 conuected with the land. 



The Agricultural Department of the 

 University of Cambridge is in a different 

 position from the institutions referred 

 to above, the students being members 

 of one or other of the Colleges, and 

 their parentage not being known to 

 the Department. The figures supplied 

 by Cambridge have, therefore, not been 

 included in the above returns. In the 

 past three years 231 students have 

 attended the classes provided by the 

 Agricultural Department of this Univer- 

 sity. Of these 59 are engaged in teaching 

 or research, or are employed in super- 

 vising agricultural work in other coun- 

 tries, 26 are landowneis or expect to 

 inherit land 17 are engaged in, or are 

 preparing for, land agency work, 13 are 

 farming. The occupations of remainder 

 are unknown, but it is probable that 

 many of them expect to euherit land or 

 to become associated with land manage- 

 ment. 



EDUCATED INDIANS AND 

 AGRICULTURE. 



(Prom the Indian Agriculturist, Vol. 

 XXXVI, No. 9, September 1, 1911.) 

 The increasing recognition of the 

 necessity of finding new avenues of em- 

 ployment for young Indians of education 

 is a satisfactory sign, even though the 

 steps adopted to make good the deficiency 

 have not been productive of far-reach- 

 ing results. The fact that in other 

 countries educated men are able to make 

 a competence and often a fortune in 



industrial pursuits is striking the imagin- 

 ation of the Indian youth and causing 

 some of the more enterprising among 

 them to adventure across the sea in 

 order to secure technical training. But 

 the possibilities of training in India itself 

 are by no means exhausted. The great- 

 est industry of this country is agiienl- 

 ture, and in the scientific tilling of the 

 eoil mauy educated men might find 

 healthy and remunerative employment 

 if they possessed the knowledge which 

 scientific agriculturists in other countries 

 find it necessary to acquire. The full 

 report of the proceedings of the Agricul- 

 tural Conference held at Allahabad dur- 

 ing the present year contains a great 

 deal of suggestive evidence bearing on 

 this problem. Mr, Moreland, the Direc- 

 tor of Agriculture, in discusing the ques- 

 tion of the estate management, said that 

 the more he saw of the Province the 

 more clearly did he realise the immense 

 loss suffered by landlords in the aggre- 

 gate owing to the inefficient manage- 

 ment of their estates. Mr. Moreland 

 declared that when he was requested to 

 recommend a land agent or manager, he 

 found himself compelled to admit that 

 the profession did not exist, and the 

 most he could suggest was that the 

 services of a Government official should 

 be obtained. This statement was corro- 

 borated by Mr. A. W. Pirn, Joint Secret- 

 ary to the Board of Revenue. The 

 Court of Wards, he informed the Con- 

 ference, had abundant experience of 

 inefficient management. The best man- 

 aged estates seldom came under their 

 control, yet the larger number of cases 

 in which it was found on assumption of 

 charge that the servants of all grades 

 regarded their own prosperity as linked 

 not with the prosperity but with the 

 ruin of the property, indicated a low 

 general standaid of management. The 

 Court of Wards, indeed, had been com- 

 pelled to have recourse more and more 

 to Government servants as managers, 

 which was in part due to the difficulty 

 of finding efficient men outside. The 

 significance of these statements is so 

 obvious that they need not be empha- 

 sised. The question that now arises re- 

 lates to the manner of training of 

 eligible young men for the openings 

 which present themselves. Mr. More- 

 land's testimony on this point is some- 

 what discouraging. The Government of 

 the United Provinces offer facilities in 

 the Agricultural College at Cawnpore 

 for the training of estate managers, but 

 the students coming forward to qualify 

 for the profession are few, although the 

 openings offered to competent men 

 appear to be numerous. Mr. Moreland 



