November i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULT- 
URAL EDUCATION. 
A home writer pleading for an agricultural education 
being provided at the public schools and universities, 
advances as one argument the responsibility of English- 
men for the well-being of India. Here we have a 
great Dependency in which Agriculture is pre-eminently 
the occupation of the people. On the one hand, ignor- 
ant intermeddling with, or neglect of, agricultural mat- 
ters may bring on bankruptcy and ruin ; while, on the 
other, due enterprise and encouragement guided by 
science, would increase the harvests of food and other 
produce far beyond any present conception. The suc- 
cessful administration of India (and we may add of 
Ceylon) must now every year depend more and more 
on the broad, intelligent and scientific handling of agri- 
cultural questions, and to secure this result, the laws 
and facts of geology, of botany, and of physiology, will 
have to be carefully studied and applied. It is parti- 
cularly pointed out that it will become incumbent on 
the Government to have then subordinate officers — civil 
servants included— educated and trained to form reli- 
able judgments on agricultural questions. Men of brains 
they should always be, and no doubt a classical, and 
especially a mathematical training, will still be required ; 
but young Englishmen for the different branches of the 
Indian Service ought not to leave then native land 
without some knowledge of the ordinary rales of cultiva- 
tion and, at least, of the elements of the sciences on 
which the success of agriculture, as well as horticulture 
in the long run depends. The latter branch, more 
particularly, deserves attention, for large districts in India, 
as in Ceylon, are now chiefly dependent on then planting 
industries, and one great duty of the servants of Govern- 
ment ought to be tho promotion and encouragement 
by every means in then power, of the cultivation of 
new products, whether in garden or field, by tho native 
villagers and land-holders themselves. 
This brings us to consider more particularly what the 
Government of India are doing to promote these objects. 
We neod not dwell on the Botanic and Economic Gard- 
ens or the Agiicultural Exhibitions established at differ- 
ent points ; on tho great cinchona culture experiment 
with its brilliant success both on the Nilgiris and in 
Sikhini, and tho important manufacture of tho febrifuge 
which has followed ; nor on the constant endeavour of 
the Indian authorities to encourage tho development of 
their resources in new products, or to introduce other 
industries, such as jute, tobacco, india-rubber, silk-grow- 
ing, tVe., from abroad. Model Farms are being worked 
successfully in several divisions of tho country, not- 
ably in Madras, where Mr Robertson has also a school 
of Igrioulture under his charge, winch ought bo to a model 
to the other Presiilcneie^, and mure especially to Cey- 
lon. From a recent review of tho work done under 
tlio auspices of this useful institution, in tho Madras 
Zynwt we quote as follows: — 
To what a high dogroo of proficiency tho Madras 
■WOO] ' f Agriculture lias attained i« shown by a 
pamphlet, which we have received, containing tho 
•' yiie.Hlii.il Papers "I 'Class J. i ] i tin: M.elr.i- Se|io,.| ,,f 
Agriculture." ttminootly practical in thoir character, 
ami admirably suited to tost the thinkiug-powers and 
the capacities of hit students generally, no ono can 
riso from evon o cursor; glauco at thorn without feel- 
ing convinced that a thorough knowledge of the vari- 
ous subjects mentioned in the papers cannot but con- 
stitute a scientific agriculturist in a very large sense 
of the term. Economically considered, tbc country 
has been too long a sufferer to tbc agricultural char- 
latanry which it has been a victim to, and Mr. Rob- 
ertson has never ceased to point to means of escape 
from tbe dangers of a neglected agriculture. Field 
chemistry and geology are points which Mr. Robert- 
son very justly lays much stress upon. They are sub- 
jects which the ordinary rj'ot treats with huge disdain, 
ana the various papers set for examiuation show 
that the Superintendent of the Government Farms 
is anxious, beyond all things, to impress on the minds 
of his young pupils that Nature has no super- 
fluities, either organic or inorganic, and that certain 
processes whose utility may not be apparent to 
us at first sight or thought cither, are as necessary to 
the comfort of animal life as is the food that such life 
is supported by. Mr. Robertson leads with some very 
practical questions as to benefiting the eoil by hoeing, 
deep tillage, and the conditions under which crops 
benefit by the latter. He has omitted no pains, appa- 
rently, in the analysis of waters, and expects his class 
to be able to determine the difference between Hydros- 
tatic water, Capillary water and Hygroscopic water, 
Manures, and the several gases that go to form a fertile 
field, in short all the elements of plant food, are points 
on which he must have well grounded his class to 
expect it to be proficient. Flax and wheat, sugar, 
cotton, ,md maize, are crops whose scientific cultiva- 
tion he urges the necessity of, while the growth of 
tobacco, hemp and fibre of all descriptions on princi- 
ples better calculated to develop them to their fullest 
capabilities could not have been omitted in his lectures. 
Coffee loses noue of its importance by the side of 
cereals and fodder-producing plants. Farm implements 
and gear generally are matters Mr. Robinson thinks 
his class ought to be adepts in ; and, looked at from 
every point of view, the portion of questions set by 
him shews that there is no part, of a farm, no concern 
of it, however petty it may be, that has not a re- 
cognised and highly important function to discharge. 
Doctor Western's papers on veterinary science follow 
those of Mr. Robertson. They are of a highly pro- 
fessional character, and extend to all matters con- 
nected with animal life on the farm either in health 
or disease. He is critical in the use of terms em- 
ployed in the pharmacopoeia of veterinary lore ; and 
the general tenor of his paper denotes the inestimable 
value he sets upon cattle and the condition of perfect 
freedom from disturbing iiiflunces he would see them 
in. Mr. Hamilton's questions on chemistry are proof of 
the high standard of perfection to which the class 
must have attained to be expected to answer them. 
A discriminating intelligence alone could enable a stu- 
dent to pass through them successfully, and we feel 
certain thnt the questions demanding an explanation 
of the different kinds of acids known to the field 
chemist are meant to bo something more thau ten- 
tative. Mr Wilkins follows with a string of every 
pretty questions on botany, and we would fain hope 
that the replit'3 received were -ignilicant of the value 
tho class attached to that branch of Nature's choicest 
gifts which the ecienco of botany illustrates. Wiser 
than our ancestors in not a few respects, it is an 
uumistakablo evidence of triumph of modern botany 
that wo no longer labour with them in tho ignorance 
which O&ce existed with reforenee to a thousand dis- 
coveries that tho science has made known in these 
latter days. Dr. Kncs's questions on zoology arc 
searching and interesting and at the same time 
tho habits and characters of the animals he colls 
upon the students to classify cannot be contemplated 
with imliff.renco. We have left ourselves but little 
space to notice tho papers ou Physical Geography, 
