TIETIE 
COLOMBO 
A'Md m iXijpiememi Monthly to the " TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST:' 
The following pages include the Contents of the Agricultural Magazine 
for February : — 
Vol. VI.] 
FEBRUARY, 1895. 
[No. 8. 
THE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL 
PRIZE DISTRIBUTION. 
HE annual distribution of prizes at 
the Agricultural School took place 
in the school hall on the 17th ult. 
A beautiful arch erected at the 
garden gate bore an inscription 
welcoming H.E. the Governor, 
and the roadway leading to the school was 
jr -i mined with coconut leaves, and moss. The 
hall was also decorated very appropriately, 
and lino specimens of tomatoes, and plantains 
— no doubt, cultivated at the school — were neatly 
arranged on the walls within, whilst clusters of 
ilowers tied up with moss, were suspended 
from the roof by chains, also of moss. Appro- 
priate mottoes also adorned the walls, such as. 
''The Tree is known by its Emit ; " 11 Practice 
with Science :"' and " Lahour conquers all things." 
The Volunteer Land, in charge of Jiandmaster 
Lusch wits/., was stationed in the garden outside, 
and as His Excellency the Governor arrived, 
in company with Mr. Ogilvy P. S. and 
A.D.C., the Rand played the first few 
bars of the National Anthem. His Ex- 
cellency was met at the entrance by Mr. 
Ashley Walker, Acting Director of Public In- 
struction, and Mr. Drieberg, Superintendent of the 
Agricultural School. The gathering which fairly 
tilled the hall, included the Hon. Sir John 
t ii iiiliiitiiii, Mrs. and the Misses Curbery, Lady 
de Soysa and the Misses de Soysa, Mr. and Mis 
D. G. Mantell, Messrs. John r'erguson, A. E. 
ftrolin and M. Cochran, Kev. S. Lindsay, Dr. 
Lisboa l'into, Miss Choate, Mr. and Mrs. I". 
Donihoi si , Mr. and Mrs. Arthur .\l\is, Mr. and 
Mis. A. Y. Daniel, Mr. and Mis. Taiuppo, Mr. 
and Mrs. Herman Loos, Mis. Yandeisiiaaten, Mr. 
H»cl Mis J. 1.. KUut, L)rs, YV. H. and \V. A. de 
Silva, Messrs. C. M. Fernando, Gerard A. Joseph, 
J{, E. Thomas/., and others. 
His KXCKI.LKN'CY on taking the chair said the 
proceedings would l)c opened by the reading of 
the Report by Mr. Drieberg. 
Mr. Drieberg thereupon, read the following 
Report of the school for the past year. : — 
The annual report of this institution must need 
differ from those of most other Educational establish- 
ments, in that it contains no record of the results of 
public examinations by which the merits of schools is 
popularly gauged ; so that the course of study here 
may, iu this sense, be said to be an uneventful one, 
unrelieved by the excitement of competition which our 
students are fortunately or unfortunately denied. 
The work of teaching, too, has been carried on 
under difficulties which other schools have not had to 
face, and which those who are fond of expressing 
their views on education in the island, have not been 
appreciated. Our course of study lasts but two years t 
the junior course extending over the first year and the 
senior over the second. Daring the early days of the 
school it was deemed inadvisable to insist upon any 
particular standard of efficiency in English for candi* 
dates seeking admission, as this would have had the 
effect of keeping out boys with a deficient knowledge of 
English, but to whom a purely agricultural education 
was a desideratum. The result has been that we have 
had a very uneven lot of boys to deal with — some of 
whom have previously had a sound general education 
at one or other of our better schools and colleges) 
while others have had practically no English education 
to speak of. But no doubt with the idea of, in some 
measure, smoothing down the discrepancies and 
difficulties that would naturally present themselves to 
the teachers on this account, instruction in English and 
Mathematics was included with the technical course 
iu Agriculture iu the school curriculum. The attempt 
to explicitly impart instruction in all the subjects of 
air Agricultural course in the vernacular is a well 
nigh impossible task, and tho franier of the dual 
curriculum no doubt recognised the fact that a know- 
ledge of English was necessary for a proper under- 
standing of Agriculture and the sciences allied to it. 
And yet in practice, this method of instruction is 
very hard to adopt witli success, since where a student 
starts with the minimum of a knowledge of English, 
it is not to be expected that at the end of two years 
he will concurrently have attained to the stntus of 
a fairly intelligent English scholar, and also have 
become proficient in the technical sciences for w hich 
the knowledge of English was necessary. Of late, 
however, while English and Mathematical classes 
continue to be held, an endeavour has been made to 
gradually raise the standard of efficiency for admission 
into the school, firstly for the reason stated as to the 
need of a fair intelligence for a rigty understanding ot 
