AND EXI'EHIMENTAL FARM. .'U:^ 



college, heard when I was in C'anatla, and have read of it before 

 and since my visit, it accomplishes the objects aimed at by its 

 founders with a degree of efficiency and success which leave 

 little indeed to be desired. Its patrons and admirers on the 

 other side of the Atlantic make the following claims on its 

 behalf, each of which is luidoubtedly well founded : — 



(1) The education is excellent in every respect; (2) it is 

 practical as well as theoretical ; and (3) it is procured at such 

 a very moderate cost as to be within the means of almost every 

 young man who intends to make farming his business. 



Are not these the very requirements which any system of 

 higher agricultural education provided for Scotland should 

 fulfil ? The force of the first and third are so self-evident as 

 not to call for an}' argument being advanced in support of them. 

 Different views have been expressed as to the second, while 

 some have objected altogether to the students performing manual 

 labour, as being incompatible with due attention to class-room 

 work and the private studies which it is necessary to carry on. 

 As to the latter point, let it be borne in mind that the students 

 at the Ontario Agricultural College are occupied in manual 

 work on an average little more than two hours daily during 

 eight months of the year — a length of time little more than is 

 necessary to be devoted to healthful exercise, and certainly not 

 entailing too much personal exertion to unfit a healthy young 

 man for mental work. 



It would be foreign to the object of this paper were I to dis- 

 cuss at length the advantages of an education in the science and 

 practice of agriculture being carried on together. But surely it 

 will not be denied that could a young man acquire a knowledge 

 of both at no greater cost than an acquaintance with the theo- 

 retical principles of agriculture alone would cost him, the 

 acquiring of them at one and the same time would be advan- 

 tageous in point of economy in money, expenditure of time, and 

 otherwise. 



I submit that the establishment of such an institution as the 

 Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm in the 

 neighbourhood of one of our large cities would fulfil the three 

 requirements specified above, provided means could be found to 

 pay a large proportion of the salaries of the teaching staff. This 

 could be done at a comparatively small outlay, seeing the class- 

 room work could be conducted by non-resident lecturers, with 

 the exception of the Professor of Agriculture, who shoidd be 

 resident. The time of these visiting lecturers would only be 

 partially occupied in the work of the college, and consequently 

 they would not require to be so liberally remunerated as would 

 otherwise be the case. The benefits of the institution might 

 be available not only to boarders in the college, but also to 



