KNOWLEDGE COMES BY PRACTICE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1033, 12 August 1879, Page 3 (Supplement)

KNOWLEDGE COMES BY PRACTICE.

(Alhawj Crmii.try ftrntlrmnn.) What we want in our agricultural education is a chance for young farmers—arid t,, r (,U1 ones, too—to get. information as tlu'V require it. You e.. not force learnij«*inti' ft man and r it profitable. hooks and scho, ' scattered among ti-.o people, and the v ..ciice of onr 1 esf •'armors, whether on grownft attached to eellt'L't'S on farms—this is the light and liiciiil-rantags that we want. We do not wnt to send our sons off on a long regr lar "('nurse." If they prefer it, and the school v jod ene. all right. The boy at home taujliis few books, and the practice of s,•l farming about h.im. it he has a. taste ii! will far outstrip his college ■ Kiaip ho grows naturally into ir. am! ■ !;.i ,iiy .tlmt which practice has demonI .c.vii,. while he hns learned his trade ■ tn 1 thoroughly than his mate at school ■ r;ii Urn it. There is not that interest lif school that we find on the farm, where I dm mnn takes that, matter to heart and tinki'H his business his own, doing for ' himself—learning much white the ot.Pier ixmly learning (and that not. necessarily thoroughly) and practising HUte—not. in l' l ''! own way and with freedom. The 'd wants scope,, freedom ; it wants to m(«mted and directly concerned. Our schools can hardly do this ivt the best. It requires the farm to do it, the man workill!; for himself and with his own. Then illm ean jjet nid with what he has—aid rs !ii' weds it— this wilt advance hint—this ill'will not forget., and he wilt get it better [ilan ho could otherwise get. it. loirming is incompatible with co-nfine-moiit and study. Practice as yon go .ilong,. and get as you practice,, aft' r laving possessed yourself of 'he r.eccss.irr tl'dimeuts. Europe farms it. wtll, not h'< m 'iiperior science so nmeh as From know•.<i;;o got by long practice. There is ex'.li)|'li! nil around— the best kind- of ednc:;.-:;"ii--iind farming is taken m ns we t:'ke itlieair. < :| f course the more we know ml il", file better farmers, ft is, there's', good to get all the knowledge we ■ire, and put it. to practice. Sneer's ::ifii comes from a» man's growing into MVovk, either mental or manual, ft' he 'issuccess,, he must, study the source of ' Ti ii. true bears largely and good fi'int. oil for its kind, he will, if he is a. trur "iilirnt,. examine the soil, its quality, 'l'tii, drainage, fertility, &c.. and learn I'diit the training, pruning, and other -ilitious of treatment ; he will get. all, I'liups more than the owner himself sees it. and, profiting by it for his own "4iee, that is the secret—repetition, '(this which establishes science. Onr

r>'i>ling. in farming as cUe where, should [ * i<> advance and penect. -themselves. >»wn t'f » gotnl fanner has tlie advan--lovurall o the I'M,, if be is ami tented, anil made farniin:.: his elioiee. He will :, n bti a fanner at his majority or soon l'<r, anil fie will do justice to his inheri-M'-impi'ove as the age prop-esses. : "lik. papwrs, with such other aids as : 'r. will be smllieient to advance him, 1* *to talk science, rot to write science, ;■! lie practice sneemful farming.