Miscellaneous. 



542 



[December 1909. 



farms and the country for their life 

 work— those who, according to Mr. 

 Roosevelt, stand for what is funda- 

 mentally best and most needed in our 

 American life — are left to get what they 

 can from the schools, and statistics 

 show that 90 per cent, of them drop out, 

 never take this advanced training, or 

 finish a course. As Mr. Bell has said the 

 farm and the farmer is despised in the 

 farmers' school by his teacher, and 

 evertually by his own children. Recent- 

 ly there has been a tendency on the 

 part of some educators to consider this 

 neglected 90 per cent., the boys and girls 

 of the farmer and working man, who 

 pays for the school. In some States the 

 course of study have been changed so 

 as to train for the business of the farm 

 and the country, to enhance the value of 

 country life, to beautify and make farm 

 homes attractive. 



Farmer Boys' Experiment Clubs.— One 

 of the more important movements in the 

 schools for arousing an interest in the 

 business of the farm and a desire for agri- 

 cultural knowledge is the farmer boys' 

 experiment clubs, which in some cases 

 number as many as 500 boys between 9 

 and 21 years of age. In these clubs the 

 boys test the vitality of different seeds, 

 make investigations with reference to 

 diseases of plants and animals raised on 

 the farm, experiment with sugar beets 

 and green corn, and in some cases corn- 

 growing contests have been held. 



Girls' Home Culture Clubs, — Side by 

 side with the boys' experiment clubs, 

 home culture clubs are being organized 

 for girls, in which the girls have general 

 cooking contests, bread-making contests, 

 and needlework contests. Through 

 these clubs almost uubounded interest 

 has been aroused in the work of the 

 home and the farm, the everyday life 

 of the boys and girls is made much 

 more attractive, and country life takes 

 on a new meaning. Beside the advant- 

 age of turning the minds of our 

 youug men and women to the improve- 

 ment of country life, there is not that 

 discontent which comes from educating 

 them to ideals they can never realize 

 and leaving them untrained and unpre- 

 pared for the service they must perform. 



Educational Excursions.— In addition 

 to the organization and the contests of 

 the boys' experiment clubs and the 

 girls' home culture clubs, many educa- 

 tional excursions are planned and made 

 by them to State argiicultural colleges, 

 State universities, or State capitals, 

 and thus a knowledge is obtained at 

 first hand of the direction and the 

 results of the diffeient lines of govern- 



ment work, of commerical and social 

 conditions outside of the little commu- 

 nity in which they usually live. 



POONA AGRICULTURAL 

 CONFERENCE. 



Speech by the Governor. 



(Prom the Indian Agriculturist, Vol. 

 XXXIV., No. 10, Oct. 1. 1909.) 



The Council Hall, Poona, was crowded 

 to its utmost capacity on September 29 

 with Chiefs, Sardaars, and a great many 

 others from different parts of the Pre- 

 side.nsy at the Agricultural Conference. 

 The Conference was presided over by 

 H. E. the Governor, and Sir John Muir 

 Mackenzie, the Hon. Mr. Jenkins, H. H. 

 the Gaekwar, H. H. the Maharaja of 

 Kolhapur, and H. H. the Maharaja of 

 Idar we^e on the dais with his Excellency. 



The Governor's Speech. 

 His Excellency the Governor opened 

 the proceedings. In doing so, he said : 

 "Chiefs, Sardaars, and gentlemen, — In 

 India it is not easy to say anything that 

 will not be disputed or criticised, but 

 the two propositions which I wish to lay 

 before you should command universal 

 acceptance even though their import is 

 imperfectly recognised. In the first place 

 agriculture is. and must, remain by far 

 the most important of real Indian in- 

 dustries and the essential basis of 

 India's prosperity. In the second place 

 Indian agriculture, allowing for climate 

 vagaries, is in a distinctly backward 

 position. Production is not what it 

 might become, and waste in many forms 

 is rampant in many places. The pro- 

 vision of an adequate food supply is a 

 primary condition of the existence of 

 mankind and the great growth ot the 

 population in India which has accom- 

 panied the British Rule and which is 

 still proceeding, entails more and more 

 demands upon the laud. I do not know 

 whether the prevailing high prices 

 which have been advantageous to the 

 cultivators are not due, in part at least, 

 to a growing disproportion between the 

 population and the production of food 

 stuffs, or whether they arise from other 

 and temporary causes. Investigation 

 may throw some light on this important 

 question, but the fact remains that 290 

 millions of people in India must be fed, 

 and that the food supply will have to be 

 increased as the years go on, and that a 

 point may be reached at which the 

 growth of other staples will have to be 

 checked unless the production of the 

 necessities of life can be increased. 



