AGRICULTURAL TEACHING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 15 July 1910, Page 9

AGRICULTURAL TEACHING.

PROFESSOR EASTERFIELD'S VIEAVS. Professor Easterfield, who occupies the Chair of Choinistry at A 7 io'toria Collego,'* visited tho Dominion Conference of the Farmers' Union on AVednesday. Responding to the welcome tendered him by tho president (Mr. J % G. AA'ilson), ho said he was glad tho union was advocating more agricultural education. All that could well be done in this matter in the primary schools, was to awake an interest and cultivate habits of observation. The subject could' be carried further in the secondary schools, but the best methods were not those which tended to tho greatest success in examinations. There was room for a chair of agriculture in one of the university colleges, but it would be necessary to spend four or, five times the amount of the professor's salary on an agricultural school and work connected with it. Tho improvement of poor pastures was one of the most important branches of the subject, and that meant much more than an experimental, plot attached to the school. The public at Homo had just subscribed £30,000 for a proper building for an agricultural school at Cambridge University. Tho students there must previously have been through tho chemical, physical, and geological schools of the- university. Experiments in connection with tho school were to he made in the neighbouring counties, and the results would doubtless bo of enormous value to the nation. Something of the same kind would be necessary to enable New Zealand to compete with other countries in the markets. Many experts, who should be trained in New Zealand, would be needed, and they should "mostly _be drawn from the farmers' sons. Lincoln College was an excellent institution, but the area was too' circumscribed and the training obtainable was, therefore, not deep enough or wide enough to equip a real expert. Victoria College was instructed by tho Government to specialise in science, hut it would be of little use to set up a chair of agriculture unless they could do more. If some of those able to' do so were to give land for experiments, much good might bo done. Those who, like himself, were in revolt against tho present university system, would not do the good they might, if they neglected to consult those who were carrying on tho most important industry of tlio Dominion, that which was the basis of all our other industries.