FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 105, 6 January 1915, Page 3

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

WORK OF THE FUTURE. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. . During the recent visit to Australasia of the British Association for the Advancement of Science an address was delivered in Melbourne by Mr. H. p V e, principal of Duokie College, on <f A Neglected Phase of Agricultural Education.” The address teems with sound and broad views on the importance of agricultural education, and is therefore worthy of extended circulation. He starts with the statement that the modern university has within recent years taken a more active interest in the everyday life of the people, and is making every effort to popularise education in its widest sense. He emphasises, however, the necessity of training a staff of men who have special qualifications, not only as regards their scientific knowledge, but as regards their practical dexterity and their power of holding the attention of those they wish to instinct. The men who succeed in science are not necessarily those who are best suited to interpret the results of research work to the unscientific community. Thus, in regard to agriculture, if the university is to carry out its mission, it must be seized wth the importance of training its graduates, not only in the science ami practice of agriculture, but in the best methods of imparting their knowledge; the success of the agricultural education of the rural community depends greatly upon the selection and training of the proper men who form the inspectorial and teaching staff of those in touch with rural interests. The lessons to be learned from the research laboratories need to be taught to farmers in language that is intelligible to them. The man on the land is interested only inessentials. Some may wish to know much that is interesting, but the many have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with anything more than is embraced under such factors as greater and cheaper productions, and disposal and transport of his produce.

No doubt the late Cecil Rhodes, when endowing his famous scholarship fund, had iu view the making of men who understood the theory of life—men who were able to tackle the problems that beset the community in which their life’s work is cast. The aim of the universities and cotleges is to turn out something more than scientific farmers; their graduates should be capable of becoming leaders.

wi iking with and among the farming cr immunity in It t en J •avonr tc protect its own interests. Much are the men who will leaven the farming community into a homogeneous whole. The purely utilitarian spirit which often pervades in a community needs its 1 sordidness chastened. It may be achieved by stimulating and broadening the imaginative facultes of the child and youth. Where we find the utilitaian spirit strongly entrenched, one cause is possibly that curiosity, harbinger of imagination, the wndow of the soul, has in childhood been atrophied by wrong teaching and environment. Let curiosity in the child be severely checked, and the joy of life is foreshortened, and the utilitarian spirit, of life on lower plane, pervades. A chid without

curiosity is a rare being. Let this fac- i uity be blunted and the child's life is j almost a tragedy. It cannot even j amuse itself in a healthy, happy way, j aud its personality is stunted. One may ask how does the stimulat- j ing of the imaginative faculties of the j country child affect the well-being of j the rural community. As an adult, it ! means better and more artistic sm- i foundings, love and care of animals, in- | tvdligont co-operative effort, cjeanli- j ness, initiative and inventive faculties, j humour, and the power to enjoy life. ! Will the teaching of the three R’a only as some maintain is all that the State i should attempt, do this? I Millions of pounds sterling are paid | for amusements, and the craving is n- j creasng Since people seem unable to , amuse themselves,, and have to rejy on ; the artificial and sophistical humour of I the music hall and picture show to stimulate their sense, of humour or pleasure, is it possible that something is wrong with the system of education, as one of the contributing factors to this state of affairs? On can understand the fostering of manly games in schools, as such tend to create virility in the nation, but surely the picture shows and the ilk are not an incentive to the creation of a virile and strong national sentiment. One can understand the fostering of making a livelihood appears to be in the creation of amusement; whereas, if the training and education from child- ! hood to youth were on lines stimulating the magination, the country youth would find quite sufficient to interest and amuse him in the country, and so chock the yearning he has for city life and its pleasures.