STRATFORD.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1916, Page 8

STRATFORD.

AGRICULTURAL KSTRUCTIOX. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, Nov. 7. The meeting of pupil teacher*, headmaste.s, and instructors held here recently, and addressed by Mr. R. A. B. Browne, deserves more than passing notice. Lessons in agriculture skoiild be encouraged, and, judging by the interest taken ins, the lecturer's remarks, the teachers should soon possess sufficient knowledge to ■ undertake their new duties. Mr. Browne was careful to give a general outline of what he, as adviser to the Education Board, considered to be the first essentials of agricultural knowlodge to place before the scholars. His request that teachers generally might find time to occasionally visit the seaside, or the banks'of a river and there instruct the scholars to use t'aoir powers of observation is a good one. Certainly there should be n 0 difficulty in finding water in this province—the difficulty just now is to avoid it!\ Regarding the value of grasses, it should prove a great con'venicnee if a farmer can rely on the training secured by his son or daughter at school to'inform him as to just the right variety of seed required (o bo sown in the locality ha farms.. A case in point might be instanced. Last week a Waipuku farmer was here buying grass seed. He favored a mixture, of certain English grasses with some colonial seed, but knowing the damp and cold nature of the Foil in his locality, he had to buy the seed that would thrive, not that which he preferred and which would not give the same results. "Different seeds for different soils" is a good maxim to follow, but in these days of hustle and bustle the farmer has not got a gr.-at deal of time to experiment. Very often he has to be content to get his seed down and under the beat way he can, and it has then to take its chance. This is a haphazard style of farming, and will be greatly minimised when the youngsters returning from school can demonstrate to parents what they know of soil and fertilisers, seeds, etc.

The idea that the Education Board should allow the teachers ft full fortnight at Easter to devote ta a course of agriculture seems Rood. The chairman of the Board (Mr. P.. Masters) takes a keen interest in educational and agricultural matters, and the teachers can rely on his whole-hearted support, provided he and his comrades on the Board are assured that the time lost in closing the 1 ! school shall n't militate against the pupils' progress. .Mr Browne's request, that each school should have its sward of grass, orchard, and flowers should not be difficult to introduce; indeed, many of the schools already possess these requirements, and their vegetable patches have frequently been called upon to make the show at autumn exhibits in Hawera and New Plymouth. Cultivation of the open-air life and a love of Nature's works is to be commended. Some may argue that we cannot all be farmers. Granted; but in the past, whilst the. advanced scholar has had every privilege extended him to acquire trades and professions through technical instruction, the teaching of farm work on the lines indicated has been denied children. The Board is working on right lines, and every effort to encourage, the farmers of the future to acquire knowledge in their childhood will be refleclcd by the prosperity of the future of Taranaki,