AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS.

It is gratifying to know that public opinion in this Dominion is steadily grow- ( ing in favour of agricultural education ;n; n i our primary and secondary schools. This ' sentiment, though long delayed, is a j worthy one, and its practical realisation i is* necessary to complete the course of education in oui rural State schools. Filming should now be recognised as one of the professions, because a thorough know- • ledge of agriculture necessitates a widVr range of studies and experience than any other profession. The education of the - boy who is to become a farmer should, | therefore, begin when he is young ; he should commence to acquire some knowledge of the occupation he hopes to follow , with his daily elementally studies, and what he learns in this direction, will most j certainly stand him in good stead later i on. when th-3 practical farm work has to , be undertaken. The Education Board of i Auckland (Department of Technical Edu- ' cition) has issued a very compact, interesting, and instructive pamphlet, giving some problems in agriculture, chiefly applicable to Auckland rural schools, but, a- the editor states, any resourceful teacher can select further local problems of practical interest to suit any district. Tne introduction of local and practical farm facts into the arithmetic of rural schools is now admittedly necessary, and incidentally a means of acquiring considerable knowledge of the science of agriculture. The booklet deals with problems in dairy work in all its branches, giving tests and submitting useful facts for cooperation of home and school. It > als» gives results of manuring, po- j

tato experiments, with values of manures, scheme for the popular grading of manures, and figures of New Zealand's live stock and products, and sets Dominion's greatest industries. The northern province of this Dominion is already doing excellent work by having nature study and agriculture taught in its public schools, and it is gratifying to learn that the province of Otago ifi about to follow in the same lines, and that our Education Board is alive bo the necessity for having agricultural education taught in the rural schools. With keen competition facing them on all sides, farmers must become as well informed and as intelligent in their avocation as are the professional classes in their respective lines of business. The administration of the farm should be economically correct, waste prevented, fertility conserved, the needs and quality of the soil understood, the punty of seed secured, and a thorough knowledge acquired of live stock and their management. With the introduction of agricultural education into the schools we may, in a few years, hope to see a greater number of young men settling in the country, -and the knowledge gained by them at school will certainly help them to hold their own against the keen competition of the present day.