THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1912. AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 20 December 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1912. AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION.

I'u vutvv of tho lecent controversy :n Masterton, it is interesting to noto that the New Plymouth High School is turning its attention to agriculture. It is thought that an agricultural school-in the district would be of far greater value than an institution devoted solely to academical instruction. There ds a strong feeling, indeed, that agriculture should be placed first. The Americans are a long way ahead of New Zealand in the matter of providing scientific and practical training in their schools. Some eight or nine years ago Professors Bailey, Hays, and Harvey, of tho Cornell, Minnesota., and Wisconsin Universities collaborated in a report which is regarded as a classic on the subject. The koynoto of the report is oontained in the clause;''This committee does not hesitate to say tha our school training should definitely recognise the fact that the major portion of our population should be trained for going on to the land.!' The professors recommend that applied science in agriculture should be a leading subject in all the secondary schools in America, both for the training of students intended to go directly on the land, and for tho training of those intended to become teachers of the common schools of tfce future. The latest autaoritativa feport Available gives ft description of whal Eaa taken placo Uiroughout iEe United! Stales during tn» Seven yearu since the Hdoptio* of the investigating committee's report. la to at descrlptio* ?fc *S ritote*! that

"there lias been a great awakening. The agricultural high schools, which cannot now be establised fast enough to supply the demand, are found to furnish mental and moral training unexcelled by any other form of educational effort requiring an equal amount of time. It gives to the general training a practical knowledge and skill with the affairs of rural and ordinary business life, and makes the individual thus trained a more efficient member of '.society, whether in country or citv." The Victorian Deportment of Education has followed thu American example- and already has ten Agricultural High Schools, one of which, close to Ballarat, is described in the Loader by Mr J. L. Dow It is eighty acres in extent and is controlled bv Mr J. H. Refschange, a Victorian native, brought up on the farm and a born teacher. The soil of the farm in .its natural state would be rejected by the majority of''farmers as too poor to touch, vet'although only in its third year it has already given yields of cereals, grass, and other crops up to those of the -best lands of the district. Thus the practical operations outside endorse the instruction in the school. j'jn the classes and the laboratory the scholars are taught that applied science will make farming pay, and j the results outside furnish ocular deI monstration of this being true.