March 1908.] 



231 



Miscellaneous. 



In 1870 the Government of Lord Mayo 

 established a Department of Revenue and 

 Agriculture in the belief that Indian 

 agriculture was " susceptible of almost 

 indefinite improvement. 



The Department was abolished nine 

 years later owing to financial pressure, 

 but was re-established by Lord Ripou, 

 in 1866, with the object of " maintaining 

 agricultural operations at the highest 

 attainable standard of efficiency." In 

 pursuance of the instructions then laid 

 down, valuable work was done in the 

 preliminary study of agricultural con- 

 ditions, the collection of statistics, the 

 organisation of a system of agricultural 

 credit, and in several provinces the in- 

 vestigation of the relations of landlord 

 and tenant, with a view to the protection 

 of tenants against rack-renting ; but it 

 was not until 1902, when Lord Curzon 

 applied himself to the problem, that a 

 body of scientific workers was appointed 

 to the Department. 



This staff has necessarily been recruit- 

 ed from European scientists, for educa- 

 tion in India has not hitherto included a 

 knowledge of the sciences subsidiary 

 to agriculture, such as agricultural 

 chemistry and botany, mycology and 

 entomology ; but though the direction 

 must remain for a considerable period of 

 time iu European hands, the discovery 

 and application of improvements must 

 depend on the co-operation of the natives 

 of the soil, and the firsc step to progress 

 is recognised to be the establishment of 

 Colleges of Agriculture in all the chief 

 provinces. 



Agricultural Education. 



It is true that four agricultural insti- 

 tutions were in existence at the time, 

 but all were, broadly speaking, ineffi- 

 cient. At Poona, five students picked 

 up such fragments of information as a 

 single officer, whose work extended over 

 the Presidency of Bombay, could find 

 time to give them. At Saidapet, in 

 Madras, there was a similar course of 

 instruction, conducted as at Poona, in 

 English. At Cawnpore and Nagpur, 

 courses were held in the vernacular 

 languages, and teachers were recruited 

 from the Poona and Saidapet institu- 

 tions. Now new colleges have been 

 established at Lyallpur in the Punjab, 

 Bhagalpur iu Bengal, and Coimbatore 

 in Madras ; Saidapet has been abolished ; 

 Cawnpore and Nagpur have converted 

 their curriculum into English ; and Poona 

 has been expanded and improved. I am 

 not acquainted with the details of the 

 changes elsewhere than at Poona ; but 

 all the institutions follow the same 

 model, and at Poona there are now three 

 full-time European professors of agricul* 

 twre, chemistry, and botany, witb 



Indian assistants in these branches and 

 in entomology and veterinary science. 

 For the present, work is being con- 

 ducted on temporary premises, but an 

 estate of 160 acres has been purchased on 

 which tlie college is in course of con- 

 struction with a full equipment of 

 laboratories and lecture-rooms, to be 

 followed shortly by residential quarters 

 for the professors and 200 students. 

 Great stress is laid on practical work in 

 the field, and Poona is well furnished 

 with opportunities. A home farm of fifty 

 acres is attached to the college ; a dairy 

 farm of similar size is adjacent ; within 

 three miles there are 100 acres of botan- 

 ical gardens, and eight miles distant 

 the sugar-cane experimental farm at 

 Manjhri. Students join about the age 

 of seventeen, when they have passed the 

 previous examination ; that is, when 

 they have taken the first year's course 

 leading to the arts degree at the Univer- 

 sity, and have thus received a fair 

 general education and acquired a good 

 working knowledge of English. The 

 college course extends over three years, 

 after which the candidates selected for 

 the Department of Agriculture spend a 

 further period of probation in practical 

 duties on the experimental farms. In a 

 few exceptional eases men have been 

 sent on to Cambridge to fit themselves 

 for appointment to the higher posts iu 

 the new provincial service. 



Pears were expressed that an agricul- 

 tural training would have no attraction 

 for the educated youth of Bombay, and 

 that the College would stand empty. So 

 far these fears have been falsified. 

 Where some years ago there were five 

 students, there are now 95. The popu- 

 larity of the new college is not solely 

 due to the awakening ot an interest in 

 agriculture throughout the country ; 

 although indications of such a movement; 

 are not wanting, the field of private 

 employment is as yet restricted. For 

 the most part the students desire Govern- 

 ment service either iu the agricultural 

 or revenue departments ; aud the latter 

 has recently been thrown open to them 

 by the Government of Bombay in the 

 belief that an agricultural training can 

 be as truly educative as a literary train- 

 ing, and that habits of scientific observa- 

 tion cannot fail to be beneficial to 

 officers whose duties bring them aC 

 every turn into contact with village liffe 



The view was also put forward that in 

 order to bring the college within the 

 reach of the agricultural classes, instruc- 

 tion should be imparted in a vernacular 

 language and not in English. The old 

 controversies die hard ; the arguments 

 with which Lord Macaulay demolished 

 his adversaries in 1835 are, equally yalit^ 



