574 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist" [Fke. 1, 1901, 
daily occurrence everywhere about them. They 
should be invited to collect specimens of natural 
history, and to ask iiuestioiis about all they see. 
Wherever possible, they should be encouraged to 
take a share in beautifying the school premises; 
they should be allowed to cultivate small plots of 
ground. Whilst doing this, they would soon dis- 
cover that certain causes produce certain effects. 
They would find that their flower-, fruits, or vege- 
tables will not thrive except under certain condi- 
tions—such as a supply of necessary ])lant food, 
manure, water, heat, or cold. Insect pests would 
also claim their attention, and in a simple way the 
intelligent teacher would explain how all tins 
comes about, and how the enemies of plant life 
nre kept in check. Thjn he could cause them to 
observe the habits of insects and, point out how they 
act as fertilisers of certain blossoms. The harmless 
and dangerous insects and animals would come in 
for innumerable subjects for object lessons. There 
is no need for any text-books to be placed in the 
children's hands ; no set lessons should be learned 
by heart. All should he spontaneous on both sides. 
The teacher himself would no doubt refresh his 
memory, or gain some useful information from 
books; but no book should be employed in con- 
Yersation on any of these little subjects with the 
pupils. 
One valuable means towards inculcating a love 
of Nature in the youthful mind is the taking of 
occasional walks into the country. Every one 
knows how chiklren, both boys and girls, will 
scatter about, following the bank of a stream, or 
wandering through the scrubs or fields picking up 
all kinds of insects, flowers, stones, and fruit. 
AH these they should be encouraged to learn 
something about, not in a dry-as-dust fashion, but 
in a pleasant, intimate, conversational manner. 
There is another way of arousing tlieir interest, 
that is by stimulating the dormant faculty of 
imitation latent in most children, but very ap- 
parent in some. They should be provided with 
pencil and paper, or a slate and pencil, and 
induced to try and copy such specimens as they 
might find, but the most ludicrous efforts m this 
direction should be taken by the teacher as 
seriously as if they were models of art. Nothing 
so much damps a" child's enthusiasm as a sneer. 
Every little first attempt should be commended, 
and the pupil helped to improve. 
There are all sorts of other ways in which a 
painstaking teacher can inculcate a love of rural 
life in the children entrusted to his or her care, 
but we have said enough for the present. We 
may state that the above remarks are dictated 
by actual experience. They are not theory, for 
we put them into practice for several years, and 
always with the most encouraging results. Yet 
the ordinary work of a school was never for a 
moment disturbed. We therefore maintain that 
•what has been done successfully once can be 
done and should be done again. 
IJ. 
The idea that the elements of Agriculture should 
be taught in our rural State schools commends 
itself to the earnest consideration of all who desire 
to .see a healthy, rural population growing up 
around us, As matters are at present, there is a 
growing tendency on the part of the rising gener- 
ation in the country districts to gruviiate to^vards 
the towns instead of going on to the land, and by 
steady opplication to farming or pastoral pursuits, 
building up for themselve- in tlie future com- 
fortable homes, where by diligence and economy 
they may eventually become independent of 
"billets," either under the G'lvernmeiit or in 
private employ, the reraiiner ition in w hich is, 
owing to the severe competition, l)Mrely enough to 
provide food and lodging. On this .subject we 
print the sulij'dned extracts from the Bulletin of 
tiie Agricultural Di.'partment of the West Indies. 
At an Agricultural Conference held in Barbados, 
one delegate said : — 
" Tiie time has arrived when it is absolutely 
necessary that elementary education should be 
made more pi'aciical, and I feel sure that these 
We^t Indian Colonies will do their utmost, with 
the limited means at their disposal, to make it so. 
There has been very little attempt made in the 
past to draw out and train the faculties of children. 
Our sy.-tem must be remodelled so as to draw out 
these faculties. 
' In too many cases ' (to quote from a paper by 
Mr, F. J. Lloyd) 'the sole object of education has 
been to cram a certain number of useless and 
disconnected facts, or pseudo-facts, into what is 
termed the brain. Teachers recognise one faculty, 
and one only, viz., memory ; and to train this one 
faculty to tlie neglect of every other has been the 
sole object of education for ages past, and remains 
so mainly to the present day. It has entirely 
neglected to develop manual skill ; it has neglected 
to draw out or cultivate any mental faculty save 
memory ; and even for this purpose has utilised 
sulijects, the recollection of which would in no 
wise benefit the future farmer. But, far worse 
than this, it has neglected the most valuable of 
Nature's gifts to all of us, the strongest natural 
faculty we po>sess — observation. What is the most 
striking faculty possessed by a child from tliree 
to six years of age? The power of observation. 
Watch that same child between the ages of thirteen 
and sixteen, and the power, though at times mani- 
festing itself, is gradually becoming dormant, 
partly because it has not been cultivated, 
partly from its constant suppression by the 
ignorance and heedles,sness of those who surround 
the child. Ten years later the faculty is practically 
non-e.\.isteut, lost from neglect of use, as a singer 
may lose the power of song, or a musician the 
power of execution. The difficulty now found in 
improving agricultural education depends greatly 
upon this failure of the past.' 
Be ours the task, as far as lies in our power, to 
try and remedy this defect in our educational 
systems in the West Indies." 
Mr. H. Gollens, Acting Inspector of Schools at 
Trinidad, in alluding to the objection some parents 
have to their children being taught to do anything 
entailing manual labour at school, said: — "If 
there is an attempt to make a c'lild in the 
schools do manual labour, the paretics state their 
objections very forcibly. I agiee with Mr. Hicks 
that, if our attempts to teach agriculture in ele- 
mentary schools are to be successful, the greatest 
