AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 310, 9 May 1874, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Tub following excellent article is the first leader in the new lerioi of the Agricultural Gazette, vrliich entered, at tbe beginning of January, on a separate existence :—: — " That part of the holding of a farmer or landowner which pnys best for cultivation is tho small estate within the ringfence of his skull." There never was a truer or a brighter word, even by Charles Dickens, from whose description of the Royal Agricultural College we havo quoted it. And there could not be a better or more fitting utterance for the key-note of n new scries of the Agricultural Gazette. Agricultural education it, of course, proceeding daily, has been proseeding hitherto continually — with its result! in •uch agricalturo as we can show — the best in the world cay some — altogether unsatisfactory say others — decidedly I capable of improvement say all. The Koyal Agricultural Society of England, in taking up the subject some years ago, were moving in no new path. They did but add one small influence more — of thiid, or fourth, or fifth-rate power — as it seems to have proved — to that great stimulus to progress which the ambitions and necessities of life impo.-e on our profession as on every other. But in the original attempt to bring their influence to bear, their leaders elrarly sa\v whether it lay within tlieir proper field or not, it was not a better technical training on the farm, nor even tho professional advantage of the larger, deeper insight which scientific knowledge gives — it was a more thorough, sounder, manlier eduration, of the boy that was the great desideratum. They felt, in fact, that Clmrles Dickens' idea is the true one, and that though they might have to confine themselves to a narrower and less important field, and take such oversight as they could of professional training only it was the education of the boy that was the only possible foundation of the successful standing of the man in agriculture, as in any other occupation. And this view, which has been always felt to be the true one, wherever a farmers family — so much more difficultly placed for education than any other — has been brought up, is at length finding anxious, earnest, powerful expression at our farmers' clubs aud chambers by men of the- cluss immediately concerned. 1 What a capital paper on the subject is that of Mr Edmonds, of Eastleach, reported in another page. How thoroughly alive it is to the supreme iuipoitance of the education of the boyhood of the tenant-farmer cla«3 in order to the ultimate success and strength of its future manhood! And we douhfc not that as with the late Mr JR. J. brown's paper on Professional Agricultural Education, given a quarter of a century ago in the same district— whence the Cirenceater Boyal Agricultural College has arisen— so from the present address of Mr W. J. Edmonds we shall have a corresponding result. A good county public school, within the means ot tenant-farmers for their sons, will arise in Gloucestershire ; and what the Cotteswold men can do will be done in many another country district, to the immense advantage of English agriculture during the next quarter of a century. The auhjei t, however, still has two sides to it ; and they were well asserted in a conversation at the. Smithh'eld meeting during the agiioultural week lust month. The spokes» en weie both of them well known in the English agricultural world — leading men in agricultural sooieties, and at their county meetings — practical men in field, and. market place alil-e — trustworthy, every one desiring an ng icultiiral education for his son would pronounce them to bo. But they look different sides " You mny depend upon it," said the one, though we cannot cla mto reproduce his actual words — " our great fulling off in the present day is lack of practical training. Here am 1, with n certain position achieved by myself, very much owing to this pkill — which I desire above all for my sons. lain a practical former. There is not a shepherd within 20 n-.iles of mo who does not know that I could mnnn&e a fiock of ulicep perhaps better than himself. My neighbo'irs of my own standing are practical men who have known all farm work from their early youth. The younger men have not nearly bo much pracl*ica)| skill and knowledge as their seniors. And my boys, whom I desiro to bring up— soroo of them— at any rate— to a funning life, are remaining at school so long , that they will probably acquire tendencies and tisteo interfering with that training which they need to make them thoroughly and practically success'

lul I wish very much r lint tlit-t Iriimn^ c.nil Ibe seeurpft tor t'ipin, but I inn driven al >»•> with Mis rest of tlie w »rlcl in seireh of tlie Ihj;lipf education of a sum* that belterstation than my own, and very inuoh feai that they w II lose it. Agricultural societies, writers, epfiikera, on tins subj *ct should bring all their urgency to boar on this part of » higher agricultural education. This it is which is most likely to be lost sight of m the icraoibla; and all your help, is wanted here." What said the other ? Wo do not pretend, here either, to stnte the words exactly, but we shall honestly report the argument. " I brought up my boy with a view to industry from the beginning. Ha knows — hns always known — that he will h.ive to maintain himself He knows now, and I have alwaya known, that his ability for this, and his chances of success,, depend not only on habit* of persistent industry and effort, but upon the possession of intellectual and moral power ; and, therefore, above everything, on that training during youth which alone confers it. I tent him to a first-rate publioscliojl, and he has gone through it with credit to himself. If he takes to farming or land agency, as I believe he will, he may very likely have already kicked at the same football with his future landlord, or successfully defended his wickets •igiinst the bawling of his future employer. That has* done him no harm. He is now at Oxford, and ho shall take honours there before I enter him systematically to his work,, whether as a land agent or upon a farm." Which, of these views are we to adopt ? If one or other must bo chosen, it may help us to a decision if we reftr to another conversation bearing on the subject ; and this, too i* a report of what actually occurred : — Passing Rugby the other day, we found ourselves in the company of » gentleman who had just crossed the Atlantic, and he wished much he could have seen the buildings in which our great Dr Arnold lived and laboured. He was bud in his praise* of Engli»h public school life and of the higher university training within reach of our young raeii. " We, too, in the States," said he, "are quite aware of the immense advantage of that prolonged training o{ the whole man obtained by those who can go to the university for a few years after their school days are over. We find it in trade and commerce as well as in what are called the professions, and I cannot doubt that it would be also felt in agriculture. Aty firm employ 1000 hands, as many as 200 of whom annually earn upwards of £200 a-piece. Of course I employ a, large staff of clerksand accountants in my office, ard I find that a young man comini; to my office at the age of 24 from one of our universities is already far more serviceable to me at 26, after one year's acquaintance with the detail of o&ce work, than, nnother is at the same age who had come to me 10 years before, and had thus had 10 years' acquaintance with our detail sinre he finished bis school life." " What is there in agriculture ?" exclaimed the second of our quoted speakers, " to signalise it as so entirely outsidethe rule of ordinary experience ? I have not a doubt that my son, with his superior training, will, after he has left tbeuniversity, easily overtake his contemporaries who began to , work four years before him, when they left schools." Well 1 it must bo confessed that there ii a good deal to mark farm, life out as separate and distinct ; and on thii the first case rests. Hew far the two views can be reconciled must be the subject of remark hereafter. Meanuufle. we do not hesitate one moment in declaring that our sympathies lie not with No. 1, but with Mr Edmonds, and with Nos. 2 and 3. It it the thorough grounding, and the thorough subsequent training of the youth that is the essential thing. It i» thu* alone that we shall acquire the hig'ier, manlier, status — more resolute as well as more intelligent — which above all things is what a tenant-farmer needs ; and which land-owners, in their own interests as well as in the intereits of all upon ther estates, should desire for them. It is on the need of higher and more thorough general education, and not on the 1 need — though it be equally unquestionable — of a good prnctical training, that agricultural societies, speakers,, writers on the lubject, should bestow their special urgency.