AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 347, 25 March 1911, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS

PRACTICAL RURAL EDUCATION IMPERATIVE. , The rural position in New South Wales, was outlined by the UnderSecretary for Agriculture of the State, 13 a decidedly hopeful one. It shows that there is arising a new spirit in regard to agricultural occupation. Thousands of parents in the cities, says the official in question, are sending their boys on the land, and men of superior education are making agriculture their life's work. The use of the plough is steadily increasing; land is being more intensely cultivated; better rotation of crops is being demonstrated; a higher standard of farming is being attained; the average yields of many crops are being increased, the quality of the flocks and herds is being improved, and the productiveness of dairy farms and the average yields of dairy herds are being raised. Education of a practical nature is being more widely diffused; the tone of the national system of education is getting a more economic flavour; there is a leaven of scientific knowledge working throughout the whole community, and it is showing its results in farming, dairying, fruit-growing, and stock breeding, as well as elsewhere. Much has been done to educate the man now on the land, and still more is being done to give the younger generation much better chances than their fathers had before them —chances which they will need on account of impoverishment'of the soil, keener competition, and the other difficulties they will have to encounter.