Agricultural Education. 



248 



[September, 1910. 



improvement of the village agriculture. 

 With this intention we issue our Agri- 

 cultural Calendar every year, and try 

 to supply every schoolmaster with a 

 copy. This contains practical advice on 

 well-tested improvements, which may 

 be safely recommended to the ryots. 

 I would ask as a special favour of all 

 the members of the Education Depart- 

 ment present to-night that they should 

 see that every school has a copy of 

 this Calendar, and that they should use 

 their influence to get the schoolmasters 

 to read it and discuss the subjects 

 dealt in it with the people. Each article 

 is signed, and the writer will be very 

 pleast d to give any further informa- 

 tion regarding any point which is not 

 clear. In fact, one of our main objects 

 in issuing the Calendar is to encourage 

 people to write to us on agricultural 

 matters. 



"Another error which should be 

 avoided in school gardens is the attempt 

 to grow plants whose natural habitat 

 is outside the tropics. If the plants 

 grow at all, they will be sickly, stunted 

 things, and will give the children an 

 altogether wrong idea of the nature of 

 the plant in its own home. In a school 

 garden on the West Coast I have seen 

 wheat growing, but it was such a 

 wretched specimen that I did not at 

 first recognise it at all. Such experi- 

 ments are worse than useless, because 

 they confirm the ignorant belief of the 

 people in the superiority of their own 

 crops to those of other countries. This 

 does not mean that the garden should 

 contain nothing new to the village. In 

 many parts of the Presidency at the 

 present time, groundnuts are now being 

 introduced. These might usefully be 

 grown in school gardens, where the crop 

 is at present unknown, to accustom the 

 people to the sight of the crop. It would, 

 however, be as well if, before introducing 

 any new product of this kind, the school- 

 master would write to myself or the De- 

 puty Director of the Division, and ask 

 whether it is likely to be useful and how 

 it should be cultivated. All such en- 

 quiries are welcomed, and every effort 

 is made to ascertain the best infor- 

 mation. Seeds will also be procured when 

 desired and when it is thought that the 

 crop is likely to be worth trying. 



" It would be useless to attempt to lay 

 down any rules for the size or nature or 

 detailed management of a school garden. 

 In most eases the school is situated in 

 dry, uncultivated land, and unless there 

 is a well within a very short distance, 

 all gardening proper must be limited to 

 the rainy season. The first thing to do 

 is to plant a few ornamental shade trees, 

 and in choosing these it is best to select 



one of the trees seen growing in the neigh- 

 bourhood. If water is available, fruit 

 trees may be tried, and here again the 

 Agricultural Department will endeavour 

 to give advice as to the most suitable, 

 if consulted. 



" The first requisite of a school garden 

 is that it should be neat and well-kept, 

 and, if possible, ornamental. For the 

 reasons given above, these habits stand 

 in much need of cultivation at the 

 present time. It would have the further 

 advantage that would make the school, 

 too often an ugly unattractive building, 

 an ornament to the village, and an ob- 

 ject-lesson to the villagers of what can 

 be done at small cost to make their own 

 homes more ornamental than they are 

 at present. Next, if any of the local 

 crops can be grown, that is to say, if 

 there is enough space, and if water is 

 available when the plants are such as 

 are usually grown with irrigation, some 

 simple experiments in different methods 

 of planting, manuring, watering, and 

 cultivating might be attempted, and 

 seed selection taken up. Hints as to the 

 kinds of experiments recommended by 

 the Agricultural Department will be 

 found in the Agricultural Calendar, 

 and if none of these are suitable, the 

 officers of the Department will be 

 pleased to offer suggestions if they are 

 addressed. I will make one suggestion 

 here which is applicable to any and every 

 place where plants are grown ; our ex- 

 perience shows that the weakest point in 

 the practice of the Indian ryot is his neg- 

 lect of seed selection. By growing any of 

 the common crops of the village for a 

 number of years, and choosing a few of 

 the best plants each year for seed, it is 

 easy to show the children that much 

 better crops can be secured. 



"In the case of private schools, where 

 the owner, as is sometimes the case, is a 

 rich landowner of the village, a good 

 piece of lacd can be secured, and really 

 useful work done. 1 recently saw a 

 school of this description where a capital 

 crop of groundnuts had been grown in 

 the school garden in a district where 

 this crop was new, and as the garden 

 was near the road, many of the passers 

 by must have seen the crop. It is neces- 

 sary that people should see and talk 

 about a new thing for some time before 

 they seriously think of growing it them- 

 selves. School gardens can thus do a 

 useful work in showing new kinds of 

 crops to the people. On the Coimbatore 

 Agricultural College Farm we give every 

 student a plot of his own to cultivate 

 himself. In most cases this would prob- 

 ably not be possible in a school garden, 

 but tin se children who show special 

 interest in the garden might be given 



