2l6 AC.KKULTURAL EDUCATION lx\ AUSTRALIA. 



Agriculture. New South Wales is endeavouriuLi' to organise its 

 farmers along" similar lines, while Queensland and Western Aus- 

 tralia were making inquiries with a view to initiating organisa- 

 tions o^ like character. 



Under this Bureau system, the farmers of the State are 

 grouped into a numher of separate " Branches," each of which 

 meets monthly for comparing notes, reading papers, and discus- 

 sion. The papers, together with the Secretary's notes of the 

 discussion, are subsequently edited, and published in the State's 

 Journal of Agriculture. The Branches also conduct field ex- 

 periments for the Department, and maintain demonstration-plots 

 on their own account. Each branch has its own honorary secre- 

 tary, and all the Branches are under the general control of a 

 Board, which is also the general Advisory Board to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



At the monthly meetings of the Branches, the scientific and 

 technical experts of the Department attend, and lecture if re- 

 quired ; but in some Branches it has become unnecessary to de- 

 pend ujx^n the departmental experts for lectures, for in those 

 localities all the lectures have for soma years been delivered by 

 the farmers themselves. These lectures, too, are afterwards 

 edited, and published, together with the reports of the proceed- 

 ings of the Branch, in the Journal of Agriculture of South 

 A ustralia. 



The July, 1914, issue of that Journal contains the sum- 

 marized reports of meetings independently held by no less than 

 75 difl:'erent Branches ; in the September issue 94 meetin<,'s were 

 similarly reported, and in the October issue 57. And these, it 

 must be remembered, differ widely from South African Agri- 

 cultural Congresses, in that they are far from being primarily 

 business meetings, but in almost every case there were lectures, 

 papers, or discussions on different phases of farm practice. 



It is the ])ublication of reports like these that renders the 

 South .Vustralian Journal of Agriculture readable to farmers, 

 which it would not be if the Journal consisted of the more tech- 

 nical matter which is, under the system in vogue there, assigned 

 to the South Australian Agricultural Year-Book. 



In connection with the Bureau meetings, what is called the 

 " Question-box system " may be mentioned. There are many 

 points on which go-ahead farmers are constantly desiring ex- 

 planations : all they have to do is to write their inquiries on 

 shps of paper and drop them in the Branch's question-box. At 

 the meeting, the papers are opened and the questions discussed, 

 those who have experience on the particular point communicat- 

 ing their views for the benefit of those who lack. If the question 

 happens to be one which only one of the Department's experts 

 can answer, it is forwarded for that purpose to the Department 

 of Agriculture, and if, at any time, a farmer belonging to one 

 or other of the Branches desires to avail himself of the services 

 of such an expert — who, by the way, would not be stationed 

 at Roseworthy. but in the offices of the Department at Adelaide 



