AGRKL'r/ri'RAl. riDliCA'I'H )X. 205 



equal nitM-it in every respect, and the one were tliree years the 

 senior of the other, he would, I think, take the senior man. as 

 being the more experienced in the ways of life. 



TiiK CoLLKGR Work. 



There are many points here which are diificult to decide, a.s 

 whether that student will do better who ha^^ had i)ractical ex- 

 perience prior to coming to "-he school than he who comes direct 

 from the town to the college and learns the best methods, and 

 so avoids the necessity of unlearning methods acciuired which 

 may, perhaps, not be of the liest. Another point, and this, to my 

 mind, the major one, is whether a student who has once been 

 taught and knows how to do ])ractical work — that is. who has 

 been taught how to plough ;• straight furrow, set a plough, and 

 handle one generally, shear sheep perfectly, etc. — should continue 

 wasting his valuable time in doing this work over and over again 

 until it becomes a mechanical operation, or whether he should 

 turn his attention to the next most urgent practical operation 

 which will help him in after life. The two years' course, such as 

 we have in South Africa, is all too short to teach men thoroughly 

 how to carry out practical work of diiTerent kinds which they 

 will encounter on their own farms, and the shortness of the 

 course renders it impossible for these men to keep at the same 

 work for months on end if tliey have become proficient in this 

 work. Yet there are many in this country who say that an agri- 

 cultural school should be run entirely with student labour; mean- 

 ing that men would have to continue the same work for months 

 at a time when they are paying to be taught all classes of work. 

 Practical work is an absolute necessity ; every student must go 

 through a complete course of it ; and for this reason alone a two 

 years' course is too short. 



EXPERIMEXTAI. AND Re.SEARCH SeCTIOX. 



This brings us to the all-important point with regard to all 

 three phases of agricultural education to be dealt with in South 

 Africa, namely, we have no South African data from which to 

 teach. Unfortunately, agriculture does not stand alone in this 

 respect. At present our teaching is from English and American 

 text-books, and no teacliing can be other than sterile unless we 

 are able to teach South African facts, gathered under South 

 African conditions by men carrying out the original research 

 for this purpose. Therefore our colleges should have a sufficient 

 staff of men. not only to teach the students, but to carry out the 

 necessary research work to give them the facts to be taught to 

 the students, as well as the facts to be taught to the farmers. 

 Up to the present this has been impossible. The reason it will 

 be interesting to ascertain. Probably men who could have done 

 the work have had to attend to administrative details or constant 

 teaching, which has rendered this impossible. Even such in- 

 formation as we have is widelv scattered, and of no value what- 



