AGRICULTURAI. EDUCATION. 693 



Agricultural statistics, 1911, R. H. Hew (Bd. Agr. and Fisheries [London], 

 Agr. Statis., Jf6 (1911), Xo. Jf, pp 275-375, fig. 1). — This report coutains detailed 

 statistics of tlie imports aud exports of agricultural produce into and from tho 

 United Kingdom and the returns of the trade in live stock between Great 

 Britain and Ireland in 1911, with comparisons. The total value of the chief 

 kinds of imported food, excluding sugar, rice, and lard, was £149,635,000, as 

 compared with £27,835,000, as the average value for the 7 years 1856-18(52. 

 The greatest increa.se in quantity was meat, the over-sea supply increasing 

 from 5.3 lbs. per head in 18,56-1802 to 15.5 lbs. per head in 190.5-1911. 



General statistics in France (Ann. Statis. [France], 30 {1910), pp. 102-10-'i, 

 109, 110, .}3*-//5*, lS2*-l.S9*).—An official report giving detailed statistics re- 

 garding number and memberships of professional, industrial, connuercial, and 

 agricultural syndicates in France, June 1, 1910. The agricultural syndicates, 

 according to the report, numbered 4,948, with a membership of 813,038, of which 

 14,720 were women. There were 77 unions of agricultural syndicates and 

 4,726 affiliated syndicates, with a membership of 1,067,417. 



Other statistics are given as to number and work of mutual agricultural 

 credit banks, together with data pertaining to various crops from 1815 to 

 1911 in France, including tables which show the area and production of wheal, 

 oats, potatoes, etc., in various other countries from 1850 to 1911. 



[Agricultural statistics of South Australia], L. H. Siioll {So. Aiist. Statis. 

 Dept. Bui. 1, 1912, pp. 16). — This bulletin presents final results of the cereal, 

 hay, and fodder crops in South Australia for the year 1911. 



The total area under cereal cultivation was 2.907,182 acres, of which 2,607,206 

 acres was in wheat, which gave an average yield of 9.29 bu. per acre.'a decrease 

 of 2.28 bu. as compared with the previous j^eai*. The total value of the grain, 

 hay, and fodder crops is estimated at £5.410,005. 



[Live stock statistics of South Australia], L. H. Sholl {So. Aust. Statis. 

 Dept. Bui. 2, 1912, pp. //). — In this report is shown the final results of live 

 stock statistics in the various counties and divisions of South Australia for 

 the year 1911. The cattle numbered 393,566, an increase of 8,704 over last 

 year; horses 259,719. an increase of 10,393; sheep 6.171.907, a decrease of 

 95,570; and dairy cows 121.803. an increase of 2,175. The amount of butter 

 made is reported at 9.694,606 lbs., a decrease of 1,022.820 lbs., and cheese 

 1,517,561 lbs., a decrease of 278,720 lbs. The butter exported amounted to 

 2,079,195 lbs., valued at £103,875. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



The educational value of agriculture, E. Barnes (Advance print from Nat. 

 Ed. Assoc., Proc. Dept. Superintendence, 1912, pp. llp-hoO). — Some of the ad- 

 vantages of instruction in elementary agriculture when well given, according to 

 the author, are as follows: (1) It commands from the start a wide range of 

 the interests most common to children, (2) it forces measures and comparisons, 

 and judgment thereon, upon the child at every turn, (3) it trains a child to 

 be careful, exact, patient, aud iiersistent, (4) it offers in the gardening work all 

 the elementary problems of form, color, and proportion, and so lays the 

 foundations of a sense of beauty, (5) it afi'ords abundant opportunity for 

 emulation aud cooperation, and (6) it teaches boys and girls to work. Inasmuch 

 as it discourages pure reasoning, students should also be taught pure mathe- 

 matics, logic, and languages. The author points out that " our trouble in the 

 past has been that we have tried to take our school children directly into this 

 abstract world of exact thinking and exalted feeling without passing them 



