STRATFORD.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1915, Page 3

STRATFORD.

NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, Yesterday. . The Simplex Milking Machine Company has pure-based the garage of Messrs. Mudford and Son, of Broadway South. The official opening of the Stratford Bowling Club will be held on Thursday afternoon at 2.15. A charge of Is is to be made to all gentlemen attending, the proceeds to go to the Wounded Soldiers' Fund. The Egmont Club orchestra has kindly offered their services. The club will be pleased to welcome ladies and visiting bowlers to this function. There was great excitement in the north end of the town this morning. A child of about 2y s years was lost, and father and friends searched the countryside for him, and it was not until returning to town that the father espied the lost one .unconcernedly watching a motorist washing down bis motor-car. There was a family rejoicing in that home a few minutes later.

Another case of Christmas gifts for the Taranaki boys in the trenches was consigned to Wellington by Mr. P. Skoglund, Town Clerk, to-day. Many of the presents are privately donated and addressed to individual soldiers, but one and all will have tokens of tobacco, etc., to remind them of their friends at home.

AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION. This morning, your own, at the Invitation of Mr. J. G. Ellis, Instructor of Agriculture, visited the agricultural plots in Broadway South. The property has an area of two acres, and seems well suited for the purpose intended. A well-built cottage, which has 1 just beesi erected by the Board's builder and staff, contains a kitchen, dining-room, manure shed, and another room for potting, d-.'. This room will serve as a bed-room, because it is intended later on for tho country schools to come into Stratford and stay a day or two, to enable them to take practical instruction under Mr. Ellis' direction. The gates erected on the Broadway side were made at the local Technical School, and erected by the pupils under the guidance of Mr. F. W. Samlford, and they certainly reflect credit on all concerned. One half of the area is to be devoted to root crops, while the other part is for cereal and grass wops. At the present time, the pupils have planted fifteen varieties of potatoes for a variety test, and are planting three well-known varieties —Gamekeeper, Early Vermont, and Commonwealth —for a inanurial test. A start is being made this week to sow eight varieties of mangolds, six of carrots, six of swedes, and six of turnips. The whole of these seeds are carefully weighed out, dates of planting, and subsequent treatment notes, and records will be made of the harvesting, and estimated crops per acre tabulated. This sliould be of great advantage to this district, and farmers will be in a position to ascertain which varieties give the best returns. The pupils are given practical demonstrations in squads of twelve, because the instructor considers that from 12 to 20 are ample, in order to give the practical instruction necessary. The headmaster, Mr Tyrer, and the instructor have arranged for Saturday classes foom the scliools in the Toko and Whangamomona districts for technical and practical instruction. These pupils will not only be taught the practical side of agriculture, but will also take a course of practical dairying, which will be taught at tbe Technical School, and occasional visits will be made to the Stratford dairy factory, the directors of which have kindly allowed the pupils this privilege in order to further their education. In addition they will be taught woodwork, while the girl pupils will have cooking and home science taught thein. The pupils seemed to be keen or the agrcultural classes, and the way they shaped to-day made me think that the wotk was not only enjoyable, but, one lad Bftid: "They were not long enough at it." On this point, the lad seems right, for squads of pupils only stay ian hourf and then go back to their school duties. It appeared to "your owrr'' that these boys should at least put irf the morning, and that another batch he taken in the afternoon. If this were done the boys would get a better knowledge and it would be fairer to the instructor, who seems the right man in the right place. The Stratford people ought to bo proud of possessing such a fine ground, and it is a pity that the parents of the pupils do not take a .little more interest in this particular of the school work.