Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 1908. CADET ACCOMODATION AT RUAKURA.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4343, 1 December 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 1908. CADET ACCOMODATION AT RUAKURA.

J /* above all— to thine own eel/ be true, 4 .*(/ it muni follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

It is interesting to observe that the note struck in the Agricultural Department’s annual report is one of enthusiasm. In this report it is stated that we may expect that within the present year accommodation will be provided at Ruakura for cadets. It is suggested that lectures are to be given and, that the mind of the student of Agriculture will be thoroughly imbued with the ideas of progressiveness, while his hands will be trained to apply the principles of thoroughly up-to-date farming to his daily work. “ Practical training in farm work will be the principal feature ” we are told, “ but it is expected that a series of lectures will also be of equal importance. They may embrace such subjects as the principals of agriculture, breeding, economic botany, chemistry as applied to the farm, diseases of stock, land surveying, and accounts. The general idea is to not only equip the young man who is entering into agricultural life with the knowledge of the casual work of the farm, but also to imbue his mind with ideas that he must be progressive, that country life is as attractive as that of the city, that profitable farming, assured by prac tical training, can be still further assisted by acquaintance with the principles on which agriculture is founded, and that such knowledge will, at least, help him to undertake many interesting investigations on his own land, and materially improve the conditions of his life.” The report goes on t» say that the short course of instruction to farmers should be associated with the farmers co operative experiments and with the development of the experiment stations into training colleges. With these suggestions we are in entire agreement. It is quite impossible to overrate the importance to the Dominion of the thorough equipment and training of our next generation of farmers. The farming industry stands at the head of all our Dominion industries. Our wealth lies in this, that we possess a country capable of any amount of development agriculturally, while London presents a market which is equally capable of indefinite exploita tion. Every grain of added efficiency which we can bestow on our coming agriculturists is a grain of gold. Every new discovery which we put them into the way of making is the foundation of a fresh field of success, and every betterment of method or appliance which they can achieve is a saving of that valuable asset namely time, which no one better knows how to value than the practical and progressive farmer. We have a young country, we have not lapsed into the groove stage, our young peoplo are progressively inclined, whether they elect to follow accountancy, law, or agriculture. And we are assured that those who devote themselves to the latter profession will be prepared to follow it out as scientifically and assiduously as those who elect to follow' the other professions. We must give them every encouragement. On the importance which we attach to agriculture, perhaps more than on any other thing, depends our prosperity in the immediaie future. Even a gold boon could not do as much in solid benefit to us as the earnest development of our agriculture, because there is so much speculative and financial intoxication associated with gold ; whereas in the steady and conscientious de velopment of agriculture is to be found the building up of a sound financial position, “ bread -based " upon steady patient, thorough work, and the capacity for honest, hard, steady work is the foundation of all our material wealth.

When all is said and done, the the man who cultivates the raw material, is the man who gives us the wherewithal to develop all our other industries. Let us give him every chance to do it generously.