THE LINCOLN SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. (Canterbury Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1707, 14 June 1883, Page 2

THE LINCOLN SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. (Canterbury Times.)

Tiik recently published report of the D. rectors of the School of Agriculture will be read with pleasure by everybody who takes an interest in the progress of New Zealand agi iculture. We observe that three students have passed their final examination, being the first who have completed the full course of instruction imparted at the school. In his report, Sir Ivey shows some anxiety lest the capabilities of the school should be judge*! through students who have not completed their full course, some reirninliig at the .School for one year, others for two, while others fail to stand the final test tin ough lack of ability or application. A student may acquire much valuable knowledge, and yet fail in some of his examinitions, and it cannot be taken for granted that all those who have not " pa.ss.sd" are failures Some of the plucked ones may indeed turn out excellent fanners when it comes to the practical t-bt of after life. Farming, taking the word in its more.j>'lvauced sense, is a many-sided profess/ion, and as it is taught at the School of^gricultuic involves both physical and iv^l^e.\eition, and a student ivho excels both ill the field and in the class-room must be endow erl by nature with faculties above the common. In every school there is a proportion of pupils who do their masters no credit, but wo think the public are sufficiently reasonable not to tako one of these and hold him up as an average specimen of the sort of article the School is capable of turning out. Among the most useful acquirements a farmer can possess is a habit of accurate observation. We are probably not far wrong in saying that fanners, as a rule, arc not the closest observers, and they are somewhat given to drawing conclusions on insufficient ground*. Agricultural experiments, especially those pertaining to plant life, need to be repeated many times to be absolutely reliable, if, indeed, absolute certainty can be arlived at in any case. There are so many subtle and di&tui bing influences surrounding tne growth of plants, that no experimenter can be sure they have all been detected, or if detected, allowed their proper weight. Those who have studied therepoits of the leading English and Continental expeiimenters, will understand in some mensuie the difficulties of agricultural research. The proposed subjects tor essays at the School for the ensuing year, aie of a useful character, but so comprehensive that we fancy the most intelligent or industrious student will barely find room for the display of all the know ledge he lias already acquired, or is likely to acquire, during the remainder of his life, even though he reaches the alloted thive score and ten. The first subject is for an essay on '• The Cultivation of Wheat," on heavy, medium, and light soils. Particulars are to be given as to the preparatioa of land, the season for each operation, preparatory crops, kinds of wheat, habits of growth of each, composition, kinds of plant-food required, and quantity removed trom the land by an avei age crop, diseases, harvesting, &c, with cost of all operations. The subject of "Rotation of Crops" involves* the reason forjthe adoption 'of rotation, the system adapted to various kinds of land, piobably co;>t of labour, amount of lcturn in grain and meat, and the quantity of plant food removed and returned to the soil dining the couive. If the school at Lincoln can pioduce but one student who is üble to give minute and accurate infoi matioti on all theac points, Mr Ivey need be under no anxiety for the credit ol the establishment^ and such a student might in his lipor years be put forward as a fit and woithy successor to Sir J. B. Lawes when that distinguished man ceases his labours. The amount of practical work done upon the farm, so far as can be judged by the report, should satisfy the most practical ot ciitics. The total acreage of the farm is about 625 acres, and the total grain production for the past harvest amounts to nearly 8500 bushels. This is a fact of the most substantial sort, and taken in a conjunction with an average weight of wheat of 41 bushels to the acre, shows that there is good honest work done on the farm. Leaving out the experimented plots, the highest yield per acre was Hunter's white, o7fc bushels, and the lowest Chiclham, 32 l-3th bushels. The Chidham was grown on onc-fuirow lea land, and was also attacked by skylarks when coming out of the ground, but Mr Ivey considers it an infeiior vatiety. The experiment* to show the value of Milestone as a preventive of smut were very successful, and the result is worth noting by farmers generally. The seed dressed with genuine bluestone came up later and thinner than that not dressed, or dressed with the spurious article (greenstone. ) A plot, the seed of which was dressed with lib of bluestone to the sack had a very thin plant indeed, thus showing the necessity of caution in the application of bluestone in order to avoid the evil of overdressing. On the strip dressed with copper sulphate no smut was to be found ; where iron sulphate was used something like 5 per cent of the heads were attacked by smut, and where no diessing was used the percentage of smutty ears was considerably greater. A continuation of the expert-* meats on various kinds of wheat witbtffl view of ascertaining the proportioV^^B starch and albuminoids contained in t^H grain, brings out the fact clearly tha^ New Zealand and Australian wheats contain more starch and less gluten than either Hussion, American, or English. Having ascertained this deficiency in Colonial wheats, the next step is to find out the reason of it, whether the evil can be remedied, or whether it is owing to some inherent defect of climate and soil, and beyond cure. Some useful work has been done in the analysis of manures, and in the Natural Scienoo department we observe it it stated that Mr Kirk has given a good deal of attention to those most destructive pests., $b§ grass-gnjh and slug-leech. Should any effectual oreven partial cure or preventive be hit upon, farmers will have a reason to be grateful. The grass grub is one of those pests for which a specific cure can scarcely be hoped for, but a knowledge of its life history may be of great service in enabling farmers to circumvent it. Taken as a whole, the report shows that good useful work has been done at the school and farm at Lincoln, and it is an additional source of gratification to find that at an examination held in December last, h,y . two well-known farmers apj pointed /by the Board, of Governors ior th'afc'gurpose, the students gave, proof, pf being well grounded in the raore> strictly TOGtical hrauchoaof &gviqultu.r»l.w.Qrk v