July 2, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
7 
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 
GREATER BRITAIN. 
paper head before the foreign and 
colonial section of the soctety of arts, on 
tuesday february 27, 1900. 
By R. Hedgee Wallace. 
(Continued from Vol. XIX. ^ page 801.) 
The two factors that must iuflnence all efforts 
in the West ladies are the problems of tropical 
cultivation and the wants of a native peasantry. 
The first step taken, therefore, in what might be 
termed the new era of agi'icultural education in the 
West Indies, was the establishment and develop- 
ment of the institutious known as botanic stations. 
These are small and inexpensive gardens devised 
in order to afford practical instruction in the cul- 
tivation of tropical crops and were first intended to 
meet the special requirements and develop the agri- 
cultural resources of the smaller islands in the West 
Indi-^iS. The first stations started weie at Grenada 
and Barbados in 1886. Since then stations have been 
started at Antigua, Bermuda, British Honduras, 
Dominica, Montserrat, St. Kitt's Nevis, St. Lucia, 
St. Vincent, and Tobago. There are now in ail 
eleven stations in the West Indies and they are in 
close relationship with Kew. 
The next step taken to advance the interests of 
agricultural education was the establishment at 
Barbados of an Imperial Department of Agriculture 
for the West Indies, with Dr. Morris as Commis- 
sioner. As regards agricultural education this Depart- 
ment has three objects in view: — 
"(1) To start industrial schools for training boys 
in agricultural pursuits. (2) To encourage the theo- 
retical (and to some slight extent the practical) teach- 
ing of agriculture in elementry schools. (3) To pro- 
mote the teaching of scientific agriculture in college 
and schools." 
I have been favoured with an advanced proof of 
the second West Indian Agricultural Conference 
which was held at Barbados on 6th January, 1900. 
In his opening address I note that Dr. Morris 
says : — 
' The scheme of agricultural instruction suggested to 
meet the immediate requirements of elementary 
Kchools aims first of sU at rendering the existing 
teachers competent to give simple object-lessons 
bearing on agricultre and illustrate them by experi- 
ments and actual specimens. Examples of growing 
plants should be grown in pots and boxes under the 
eyes of the children, and every stage of their growth 
as well as the conditions favourable for rapid and 
successful development should be clearly explained. 
This much is within the reach of the poorest school 
in the West Indies. All, however, depends on the 
amount of knowledge and the interest thrown into 
the. subject on the part of the teachers. It is pro- 
posed to assist the teachers at present in char(;e 
of schools by affording them the means of attend- 
ing courses of lectures during- their holidays. While 
attending these lectures all out of pocket expenses 
(except in British Guiana, Trinidad, and .Jamaica) 
are paid by the Imperial Department of Agriculture. 
Lectures to elementary teachers were started last 
year at Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Barbados — in 
each case with singular success. They will be con- 
tinued next week (.January. 1900) at Tobago, Grenada, 
St, Vincent, and Dominica. The teachers so far 
have shown themselves most anxious to acquire know- 
ledge of the principles of agriculture, and it is anti- 
cipated that during the next two years most of the 
existing teachers th':oughout the West Indies will 
have passed through the initial course of training. The 
teacheisnow at the training colleges and all figure 
students passing through such colleges should be 
fully instructed and be competent to teach agri- 
culture before they are placed in charge of schools. 
For the present Blackie's '■ Tropical J^eaders," 
Books I, and 11. , are recommended for use in schools, 
)}ut great care is required to prevent mere book 
knowledge, which is worthless, taking the place of 
the intellectual education and the hand and eye- 
training necessary for agricultural ipursuits.'' 
Dr. Morris further states that — 
" As a higher stage in agricultural education it is 
proposed to maintain agricultural schools — the first 
at St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, and St. 
Kitts. The boys will be fed, clothed and trained 
free. Admission to these schools will be offered as 
an exhibition to boys in elementary schools of 
about li years of age who have passed the IV. 
standard ani who show moral and intellectual aptitude 
for such instruction. We have next the scheme of 
instruction in agriculture to boys in Secondary and 
High Schools assisted by the special lectu-es in agri- 
culture provided by the Imperial Department. At 
the same schools scholarships are offered to boys from 
the country districts, the sous of p anters in moderate 
circumstances, who intend to devote themselves to 
agricultural pursuits. L istly, there are lectures to 
the younger generation of planters and others en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits to afford information 
and assistance in elucidating the scientific prob- 
lems which undertake the practical work in which 
they are daily engaged." 
So far then this describes what has been done gener- 
ally in the West Indies in the interests of agri- 
cultural education. The work done specifically in some 
of the islands might also be mentioned. For ins- 
tance in .Jamaica there is now a Lecturer in Agri- 
cultural Science,- and at the Hope Industrial School 
practical lectures in agriculture are given by the 
Superintendent of Hope Gardens. The Jamaican 
Education Department also offer, by grants, assist- 
ance to elementary schools for the teaching of agri- 
culture as a special subject, and a practical ele- 
mentary text book cf tropical agriculture for use of 
the schools i i Jamaica has been published. In addi- 
tion it is stated all country schools are expected to 
teach the elementary principles of agriculture as a 
part of the general course. Two .Jamaica readers 
"tropical readers'' — have been brought out by the 
Board of Education, and a supplementary reader in 
tropical agriculture is in contemplation. In the 
training colleges for teachers, the priiiciple.s of 
agriculture are required to be takeu up in the second 
year's course The question of providing higher 
agricultural education for those who may become pro- 
prietors and managers of estates h.ive not yet been 
touched in Jamaica. 
Coming next to the Leeward Islands, there is a 
botanic station at St. Kitts Nevis, but no attempt ia 
made to teach agriculture in the schools there 
or at Angiiilla. 
Antigua, I find, has an officer who is called 
the agricultural superintendent of sugar-cane experi- 
ments. Formerly there was here a department of 
agriculture for the Leeward Islands under a scientifio 
superintendent. It was founded in 1891, and aboli- 
shed in 189-1. 
At Dominica there is an agricultural instructor 
attached to the botanic station, also an agiioultural 
school with a qualified officer in charge. There is 
also an agricultural instructor attached to the botanic 
station at Montserrat. 
St. Lucia is another island which has an agri- 
cultural instructor, and there is one also at St. 
Vincent. The latter island has in addition an 
agricultural school in charge of a separate 
officer. 
At Barbados there is a Lecturer on agricultural 
Science at Harrison College, Bridgetown, who also 
holds the position of island Professor of agricultural 
Science. Agriculture is also taught practically at the 
boys' reformatory school at Dodds. 
At Grenada efforts are being made to teach agri- 
culture theoretically in the elementary schools, and 
to start school gardens, and also to utilise the 
services of the Curator of the Botanic Station to 
give lectures and demonstrations. 
Tobago has a cacao instructor attached to the 
Botanic Station, but agriculture is not taught in 
the Bchopls. Neither is it taught in the elementary 
