364 
Supplement to the “ Tropical Agriculturist: 
[Nov. 1, 1897. 
the Agricultural Magazine. 1 he additional sug- 
gestion that the lectuies in the pro\ ince-^ should 
he illustrated -ssith limelight views and otlier 
attractir.ns is a ver;r practical idea. When it is 
rememl.eved that a sum of nearly K9,000 is 
being saved by the wdthdrawal of Agricultural 
Instructors and other measures of retrenchment, it 
might reasonably have been expected that some 
alternative and ‘ more practic.d programme of 
work for the improvement and extension of 
native agriculture would be adopted, but^ so 
far no action has been taken in this direction. 
The views of so experienced an oflicial as Mr. 
Daridson, vxho has been giving more than the 
ordinary attention of a revenue officer to 
native agriculture, coming also when the -scope 
of working the Agricultural Scliool has been 
diminished, ought we fancy to prove acceptable 
to Government and h.elp towards the draf- 
ting of a scheme which would make the mo t 
of the material available in the school. We 
would advise further that in connection with 
the jiroposed lectures, there should als o be demon- 
strations as far as poossible, at the time of and 
in illustration of the lectuies, and later also in 
a more practical way out of doois, and e\in 
literally in the field. Such practical demoustn.- 
tions are always given in connection, for instance, 
with the itinerating dairy classes in England. 
There is nothing like going to the very doors 
of native cultivators to reach them. What we 
want is an agricultural campaign, so to . speak, 
in the villages. 
In his last Administration Report the Director 
of rubiic Instruction refers to the good work 
being done by Mr. Lewis, the Sub-Inspector of 
Schools in the Central Province. Mr. Lewis 
may be called an old boy of the Senool of 
Agriculture, where he acted for a long period 
ns a master. We have a vivid recollection of 
his enthusiasm in all that pertains to llie 
betterment of native agriculture, and can 
well imagine his making the most of his opportu- 
nities as an Inspector of Schools— who is par 
evcellence a provincial grandee — to preach 
on the means available to the native cultivator 
for improving his status and prospects, and not 
merely to preach but to see that hi.s precepts 
are put into actual practice by, for instance, 
growing such new piroducts ; the seeds and plants 
of which Afr. Lewis himself would supjily 
them with, t • ’ 
Isow we aie inclined to think that Air. Lew'is 
self-imposed dutie.s provide an admirable example 
for imitation, for if his w'ork is fruitful and com- 
mendable, why .shoLildnot the School of Agriculture 
adopt the same course and work on the same 
lines as he pursues,— only on a wider scale. _ An 
Inspector of Schools is a busy man with little 
time to deviate from the road that leads from 
one school to another, and his agiicultural 
skirmishes must necessarily be confined to his 
line of route and to school centres: but we take 
it that schools are not so numerous in this 
country, nor are they always the most convenient 
coigns of vantage from which to attack the 
agricultural labourer. The neighbourhood of 
schools may, we confe.^s, be assumed to be the 
enli'drtencd centres of rural life, and there- 
to be capable of readily assimilating the teachings 
of enlightened agriculture. But w e would proceed 
further and work deeper, and, as we said, go to the 
very doors and fields of the agricultural labourer 
in making not mere skrimishes, hut in carrying 
oa a well-planned campaign, in which the im- 
pedimenta would be represented by seeds and 
idants, models and maps, machii'es, diagrams, et 
hoc (jenw omne so far as relates to agriculture. 
In India — in connect ion with the Saidipet College, 
for instance — we know that a special feature 
of the practical work is the going among the 
cultivators, studying their needs and ministering 
to the wants, w hether they lack information and 
instruction or such material requirements as reeds 
and plants. Dr. Alorris, in a late addres.s oil 
Tropical Agriculture in Jamaica, is reported to 
have declared that there is nothing which “ pro- 
mises to le more widely appreciated by the 
mass of cultivators or calculated to be of more 
permanent benefit than the plan of sending 
agricultural instructors to advise and encourage 
them.” 
AVe think we have written enough to show' 
that before any good may result from the 
teaching of the School of Agricultureits work must 
be made of a more practical character. Some will 
say that lecturing the people is not a very 
practical way of teaching them, but by lecturing 
we do not mean the declamation r f the class- 
room lecturer, but a method of speaking to the 
people not merely in words, hut by illus- 
tration and practical demonstration and all the 
available means of eflectually appealing to 
all the five senses of an individual. Personal 
contact with the masses is what is neces- 
sary in order to influence them, no matter 
in what direction, and until some such pro- 
gramme of work as has been recommended by 
Air. Davidson and which is siqiported (as we 
have shown) by so many independent authorities, 
is adopted, the question will continue to be 
asked, as it has been so often asked during 
the past year: — “ What good has come out cf the 
Agricultural School ? ” 
FRUIT CULTURE. 
peo’iiie ih such localities may be supposed 
( Continued. ) 
But after all the French pebble drain which 
we have described, however great an improve- 
ment it may be on open channels or no drainage 
at all, is far from being perfect, inasmuch as 
it is comparatively a make-shift affair, which 
requires periodical cleaning out. The most per- 
fect and satisfactory though costly system is un- 
doubtedly the laying down of permanent drain 
tiles. These, when properly laid, outlast several 
generations and carry off the water with three 
or four times the certainty and .swiftness of the 
French drain, while they never clog. Instances 
are numerous w'here by this means large areas of 
worthless “ drowned ” land, in which cattle could 
not venture without risk, has been converted 
into productive market farms. 
The gospel of trenching and draining is a 
hard one ; it means considerable outlay long 
before a return can be expected. To minimise 
this and attain a certain sort of success, though 
