September, 1910.] 



249 



Agricultural Education*, 



small plots of their own and allowed to 

 have the produce for themselves. Much, 

 however, as from the point of view of 

 the Agricultural Department I should 

 like to see everyone of the 25,000 schools 

 in this Presidency turned into a sort of 

 experimental farm, nothing would be 

 gained by expecting too much practical 

 result from the actual work done in 

 school gardens. The real value of school 

 gardens to the Agricultural Department 

 will lie in the influence which they 

 should have on the minds of both the 

 teachers and pupils. We all know that 

 education is not the poiuing of infor- 

 mation into a receptive vessel, but the 

 process of turning the mind to the light 

 and placing it in a position where it can 

 teach itself. The great obstacle to agri- 

 cultural progress lies in the low esteem 

 in which the farmer's profession is 

 held by the educated and wealthy classes. 

 I need hardly remind you that com- 

 pared with the actual cultivators, all 

 of us who belong to the other classes 

 may be regarded as little better than 

 parasites, living on the wealth created 

 by the labours of the "ryot. In spite 

 of this, the farmer's profession is not 

 held in such esteem as it .should be, 

 considering its utility to the commu- 

 nity, and the skill, foresight, and 

 patience required for success in it. 

 The schoolmaster who starts a garden 

 will soon find that to grow plants is 

 not such a simple matter as he supposed. 

 If he is wise, he will seek the advice 

 of the best cultivators. He will soon 

 see that the cultivation of the land 

 calls for the exercise of a good deal 

 of intelligence, judgment, aad know- 

 ledge of seasons, besides mere hard 

 work. This knowledge caunot fail to 

 increase his respect for the parents 

 of his pupils. On the other hand vener- 

 ation for the teacher is still a strong 

 characteristic of Indians. If the children 

 see that the teacher himself is keenly 

 interested in gardening and agriculture, 

 and is not above working in the garden 

 himself, it will tend to raise their respect 

 for manual labour and for the profes- 

 sion of agriculture, usually thought un- 

 worthy of the serious attention of an 

 educated man. It will also help them 

 to see that the work of the school has 

 a direct bearing on their after-life. The 

 schoolmaster himself will find that the 

 garden brings him into closer touch with 

 the people of the village, and it will 

 help him to understand the problems 

 which his pupils will have to face when 

 they leave his school. 



"The effect on the minds of the boys, 

 however., of a well-managed garden is 

 by far the strongest argument for eu- 

 32 



couraging school gardens in every pos- 

 sible way. One of the greatest difficul- 

 ties which we have to contend against 

 in the Agricultural Department in our 

 efforts to find out something about the 

 agriculture of the country and improve 

 it, is the want of power of accurate 

 observation on the part of our subordin- 

 ates, and the intense conservatism of 

 the ryot. The former have in most 

 cases, had an English education, but have 

 never been taught to observe the com- 

 mon objects which they see round them 

 every day of their lives. Many of our 

 present men are comparatively useless 

 because they have not had the advant- 

 age of being trained during their school 

 days to use their eyes and accurately 

 observe what is going on around their 

 homes. A school garden, where the boys 

 were taught to watch the growth of 

 the plants from day to day aud notice 

 the different effects of different methods 

 of cultivation, might be made into a 

 really useful instrument for training 

 the faculties of observation. 



"For the improvement of Indian Agri- 

 culture, however, it is not sufficient to 

 have good officials. We also need an 

 improvement in our raw material, the 

 ryot himself. The vast ma jority of the 

 boys attending the rural schools will 

 follow the profession of a cultivator 

 when they leave the school. I want all 

 you students of this College to keep 

 this fact always before you when you 

 are training Elementary school teachers 

 and inspecting the schools. We want 

 you to give us ryots whose minds are 

 opened to new ideas, and who do not, 

 as the present generation of ryot usually 

 does, condemn a thing off-hand, simply 

 on the ground that they have not seen 

 it before. The best way to do this is 

 to influence all the public and private 

 bodies who maintain the schools to have 

 gardens at every school where space is 

 available, aud to see that the school- 

 master makes good use of it, bearing 

 in mind the hint contained in the Madras 

 Scheme of Studies that ' the instruction 

 fails if it does not arouse in the child 

 a lively interest in his surroundings.' " 



STATE AID FOR AGRICULTURAL 

 EDUCATION. 



(From Nature, Vol. 82, No. 2094, 

 December 16, 1909.) 



The annual report on the distribution 

 of grants for agricultural education and 

 research in 1907-8, lately issued, is a not- 

 able volume by reason of the excellent 

 discussion of the whole subject by Prof. 

 Middleton, one of the secretaries of the 



