1919] AGRICULTURAL, EDUCATION. 95 



port of the department's administration and funds, and details of operations 

 during the year 1016-17, including agricultural and technical instruction. 



Report of the joint committee of the university, agricultural department, 

 and education department on agricultural education [in Western Australia] 

 (Perth: Govt., 1918, pp. 27). — This report of a joint committee appointed in 

 May, 1917, deals with what is being done at the present time by the different 

 agencies concerned with agricultural education in Western Australia and what 

 further developments are needed in order to establish a well coordinated sys- 

 tem of agricultural education. Among the principal findings of the commit- 

 tee are the following : 



Courses in elementary agricultural science should be provided in primary 

 schools, with special attention given to the subject in rural centers. In sec- 

 ondary schools there should be more advanced courses in agriculture. A school 

 of agriculture, such as that situated near Narrogin, is a useful type of institu- 

 tion for giving instruction in the practice as well as the science of agriculture 

 to junior students, and the number should be enlarged as the demand increases. 

 Provision should be made for the training of teachers in agricultural science 

 for such schools. An agricultural college affiliated with the University of 

 Western Australia should be established as soon as circumstances will per- 

 mit, when the two-year university diploma course in agriculture should be dis- 

 continued. The university should continue to grant degrees in agriculture, and 

 scholarships or cadetships should be established to encourage students to take 

 the degree. There should be a standing committee for agricultural education 

 to coordinate the efforts of all institutions dealing with the subject. 



It is further recommended that the State activities in agricultural research 

 should be centered at the agricultural college, and that the existing Govern- 

 ment farms should cooperate as branch stations. The control of agricultural 

 research should be entrusted to a special committee. There should be a sys- 

 tem of country lectures to farmers under the joint control of the department of 

 agriculture and the university, as well as a system of regular instruction by 

 correspondence in various subjects connected with agriculture. Associations of 

 farmers to discuss technical and practical subjects should be encouraged and 

 organized on similar lines to those adopted in South Australia. In order to 

 improve agricultural methods cultural and cropping competitions in local 

 centers should be encouraged by the department of agriculture. The publica- 

 tion of an official journal by the department should be resumed, and the Fed- 

 eral Government should be urged to give financial assistance to the States for 

 the purpose of higher education in agriculture. 



Notes supplied the committee on (1) nature study and elementary agricul- 

 ture in the schools of the education department, (2) agricultural science in the 

 primary school. (3) the Narrogin school of agriculture, (4) the University of 

 Western Australia and agricultural education, (5) the education of the farmer 

 on the farm, (6) agricultural lectures and demonstrations, (7) agricultural re- 

 search, and (8) federal grants for agricultural education in Canada and the 

 United States are appended. 



Reference material for vocational agricultural instruction, C. H. Lane 

 (Fed. Bd. Vocat. Ed. Bui. V, (1918), pp. 25, figs. 5).— This bulletin gives direc- 

 tions for cataloguing and filing publications in building up working libraries of 

 reference material for vocational agricultural instruction in secondary schools 

 and discusses the teaching material available from the U. S. Departments of 

 Agriculture, Interior, Treasury, and Labor, and the U. S. Food Administration. 



Effective farming, H. O. Sampson (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1918. pp. 

 XXIII+490, pi. 1, figs. 210). — The aims of this text are to " present instruction 



