PROPOSED DAIRYING CLASSES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 27 September 1907, Page 2

PROPOSED DAIRYING CLASSES

THE CIII Et 1 VETERINARIAN'S APPROVAL. At a gathering of farmers in the Town llall last night, Mr Tiscli, chairman of the New Plymouth Technical School Committee, asked permission to bring under the notice of the Agricultural Society and Mr J. A. Gilruth the proposal to erect a dairying school in connection with the New Plymouth Technical School.

The secretary, Mr E. P. Webster, read a letter from the Education Board stating that steps were being taken to erect a room for dairying purposes, and tasking that the Society should co-operate with the New Plymouth T< clinical Sehool Committee in seeking the support of the public in the (matter. Thf' building, tile letter stated, would probably cost about .£3OO, and if half the amount were raised locally, there was little doubt the Education Department would assist to the extent of .£ for £. It was pointed out that, when the building was erected, arrangements would be made to hold lectures in agricultural and aniuial physiology.

Mr Tiseli briefly pointed out the immense advantage that would be derived in this district as the result of proper agricultural education and experimentsHe thought the aim of school authorities should be to give the children at school a good grounding in the chemistry of the soil, testing, and value of seeds and manures, niid so forth, the teaching to be backed up by practical demonstration. * ""

The president of the Society, Mr Newton King, said he would lie' most happy to assist. The letter would come (before the Society's committee, and he had 110 doubt, that it .would meet with a favorable reception. Mr Gilruth heartily congratulated the Taranaki Agricultural Society and the Education Board on the way it was' pushing ahead this question of the education of the young people in agricultural subjects. They were going on the right lines. The colony was now paying n. lot of attention to agricultural education. But the movement was not a very old one. ITe remembered the origin of it. Five or six years ago it was first mooted, and n Tnranaki-born geutleiiiui was largely responsible for it. ])r Triiby King the speaker took advantage of. a conference at Dunedin to ''sail in" to tile education system of this colony. The autliwit'ies seemed most concerned in teaching ail young men the texture of silks and the geography of Timbustoo and China, and so on. But the important and val-u-ilile facts regarding agriculture and its prospects in the colony were left severely alone. This and'a lot more they told the conference, and its pnbli cation caused a vast amount of correspondence, in which lie and T)r Truby King were very severely handled. But the criticism bore fruit, and agricultural classes were now being conducted with the greatest benefit to the farming industry. The great tiling was to make the pupils enthusiastic. If a man were not enthusiastic in bis business he was not likely to make much of a success of'it, nor was he likely to be much good unless he was always striving to know all there was to know about bis own line of business. He didn't think the farmers of the colony could be accused "of knowing all that was to be known about farming. For instance, he had just come from Pa tea, where he had seen killed a. lot of cattle sent in to be killed for the "boned meat" industry and exported to feed the people in England. Rome of those beasts were so poor that they hadn't a particle of fat—not even round their kidneys, which was the last part of the, . body that the fat would leive. That t those beasts had been culled out at the - end of the winter showed that there • was something wrong. They should ■ have been culled out at the end of the ; milking season. Instead of that, tile | farmers kept them 011, vainly hoping they would fatten. If tliev bad merely ' t.'.kcn the trouble to look into the cows' months they would have seen the impossibility of fattening—unless they were fed on milk or other food that required 110 chewing—for their teeth were worn down so that they could not eat. What was the use of keeping such animals about? It must have cost someI thing, and that was a dead loss, showj ing bid stock management and the ne- ; ccssity for people showing greater interest in gaining knowledge of stoelc. The classes and work of the Taranaki Agricultural goefcty, aided by the e 1 " cation authorities, tended in the ri"bt direction. He wnntpd to See the teachers made enthusiastic, and that enthusiasm would be transmitted to the . children. The training of schoolteachers should include practical work on a farm attached 1o the training school, in order to give them a good understanding of the mainstay of the colony. He trusted that the farmers and people of this district would take up with enthusiasm the project placed before the meeting by Mr Tisch. j Mr (lilruth's remarks were received with much applause. |