New Zealand Agriculturist FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1879. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 878, 7 February 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

New Zealand Agriculturist FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1879. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

DCKtNV- the present century much has been done to obtain for agriculture a po»ttton more in accordance with its importance than it had previously 'occupied. In no manner has this been made more strikingly apparent than by the establishment of Stateendowed and other agricultural schools and colleges. These institutions are of comparatively recent growth, and yet what an amount of good has already been worked through their 'agency. Strange as it may appear. the Mother Country is far behind many 1 other nations in regard to this matter. ! Farmers have been permitted to pursue < their important avocations without the slightest training or assistance from the State. Generation after generation have trodden the beaten tracks of their predecessors. The young farmer has had but little to guide him in the management of a farm or in turning the soil to the best account, save the experience gained from his father or the farmers surrounding him. The State has occttpied a position of indifference in regard to the matter, never giving it that consideration which so important an industry as farming deserved. Switzerland was the first to make a move in the direction of providing for the special training of those destined :o follow agricultural pursuits. The first agricultural school was founded by Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, in 1806. This school"" proved an almost inestimable boon to those instnicted within its walls. The scholars were taken from amongst the poorest class, tlte founder observing that as they had ki no other property than their physical and mental faculties, they should be taught how to use this capital to advantage" by a combination of disciplined study, and manual labor. The success which attended the establishment of an agricultural school in Switzerland encouraged other countries to try the experiment. In France, Germany, and even Russia, agricultural schools, countenanced and endowed by the State, were established, but still England lagged woefully behind. Here the state has riot taken an active interest in the founding of agricultural schools ; :he work of training farmers for their juties has been forced upon other shoulders, and the result has been that :he work has not been thorough. Ihe bestowal of scholarships by the Royal English Agricultural Society was "or years the only means publicly tdopted to promote the acquirement )f agricultural knowledge. It is true hat in 1545 an Agricultural College vich an experimental farm was estabished at Cirencester, but this being he outcome of private enterprise in no vise fulfils the functions nor confers he benefits of properly State-aided Colleges, such as those which flourish m the Continent In 1876 the Royal

English Agricultural Society, through the liberality of the Duke of Bedford was enabled to establish an experimental farm on his Grace's property at Woburn. Here various kinds of experiments are carried on with great success, the results often proving how advantageous it is to the young fanner to receive a proper insight into the theory of successful farming before entering upon its practice. Scotland is .slightly more advanced in this matter, but even here the system pursued is far and away behind that of other countries. Though no properly constituted agricultural school exis'ts in Scotland, the Highland Society has adopted measures to secure some amount of agricultural education for those who are in a position to take advantage of it. In 1874, it decided to give a number of scholarships, open to students attending the agricultural department of the Edinburgh University (the only British University that possesses a Chair of Agriculture), and adopted many other methods of providing for the study of agriculture. But' none of them appear to reach in a thorough manner the very class to whom an agricultural education would prove of the greatest value—those who, being unable to pay for an education to lit them to fill other positions, are forced to enrol themselves as agricultural laborers. The authorities in Ireland have been far more alive to the benefits derivable from a proper study of agriculture. As far back as 1838, the Commissioners of National Education established the Glasne%-in Training College, with 180 acres of land attached. " The terms in connection with this college are exceedingly liberal, and the instruction afforded comprehensive and practical. Much good has also been done in Ireland by the attachment of small farms and gardens to some 200 national schools. In America, too, the greatest attention is given to the dissemination of agricultural knowledge of a scientific as well as a practical nature : but here the State affords some amount of aid to agricultural schools.

The very natural result of the establishment of these agricultural schools and colleges has been that wonderful strides have been made by agriculture. The tilling of the soil has, in some measure at least, been raised to the position of a science. It is owing to their influence that agriculture on the Continents of Kurope and America owes its present high position, more than to the practical experience of the farmers. The influence of an agricultural education, combining both the theory and practice of farming, such as is bestowed on the students in the agricultural schools of Germany, France, America, and other countries, upon the general conduct of farming, must be both great and lasting. By it the farmer is taught how best to preserve the fertility of the soil, and how to render land, by artificial means, suitable for the growth of any kind of crop. Practical experience is, of course, worth much to the farmer; but it is of immeasurably less value than the possession of a good, sound education in all the branches of agriculture. By experience the farmer learns, after years of toiling, how to cultivate certain crops : he ascertains the conditions under which wheat, oats, &a, best thrive ; but he does not learn by experience why such is the case. This can only be learned from a study of those branches of chemistry which bear npon agriculture. By the aid of chemistry he learns what properties in manure tend to give freshness to land rendered sterile from over cultivation —he learns what elements are necessary to the growth of any particular crop, and how to create these elements when they are wanting in land. These points being con- [ ceded, we are forced to admit that the young farmer entering upon his career without such knowledge is placed at a great disadvantage, when compared with one who has received a liberal agricultural education to fit him for his calling. But the proper training of farmers is not a matter of personal consideration. In a country like New Zealand, dependent almost entirely for its prosperity and future greatness upon the prosperity of its agriculturists and graziers, it becomes a matter of na T tional importance that the proper working of the soil should be thoroughly understood, in order that the land should be made to retain its fertility, and maintain its powers. Had such a knowledge been possessed years ago by the farmers of other places the yield of grain per acre would not have diminished so rapidly or to such a great extent as it has done. It is with the view of avoiding such a result in this Colony that we now advocate the ment of a properly endowed agricultural school. We are aware that already some steps have been taken by the Canterbury Agricultural and i Pastoral Association to afford educa-

tion upon matters agricultural; but praiseworthy as those efforts are, they are not calculated to obtain the desired results to their fullest extent. What is required is the establishment of a national agricultural school, liberally endowed by Government, and conducted upon principles sufficiently broad and liberal as to enable all classes to participate in its benefits. Where such a school should be located, or how it should be conducted, we leave to those who may hereafter move in the matter to decide. In the meantime, we will rest contented with suggesting that one of the first steps taken by the National Agricultural Association should be to bring the subject prominently under the notice of the Government, with a view to obtaining a suitable endowment. This obtained, the work of establishing the school would be comparatively easy of performance.