AGRICULTLRAL EUL'LATION IX SOUTH AFRICA. 



Bv Prof. .ViiRAiiAM IzAK Perold. B.A.. Ph.D. 



Historical. — It was in the year 1887 that the first courses 

 of instruction in Agriculture were given in South Africa. The}' 

 were given by the late Professor Blersch, at the School of Agri- 

 culture and Viticulture at Stellenbosch, with the assistance of 

 the Victoria College atithorities, who also initiated the scheme. 

 Professor Blersch's untimely death in 1897 meant a great loss 

 to the teaching of this subject. He had then practically com- 

 pleted his " Handbook of Agriculture for South Africa," which 

 was ptililished after his death in 1906 by Mr. J. H. Overman, of 

 the Government School of Agricvdture at Somerset East, now 

 no longer in existence. This posthumous work of the much- 

 regretted pioneer in the teaching of Agriculture in South Africa 

 should prove of great value to farmers and students of agricul- 

 ture alike. Unfortunately, and I use this word advisedly, the 

 Cape Government removed the seat of this Agricultural School 

 to Elsenburg early in 1898, thereby separating the teaching of 

 agriculture from the higher education ofifered in the different 

 Arts and Science Departments of the Victoria College. This 

 step would probably never have been taken if it had not been 

 for the unfortunate fact, that the Agricultural School was then 

 under the control of the Agricultural Department. wSubsequently 

 the Elsenburti' School of Agrictdture was handed over to the 

 Education Department, but was later on again transferred to 

 the Agricultural Department, where it has remained ever since. 

 Why this was done I cannot say, but I consider it was a wrong 

 step to take. Had Elsenburg remained under the Edttcation 

 Department we should by now probably have found more agri- 

 culture taught in our primary and secondary schools than is 

 unfortunately the case at the present time. 



Under the Crown Colony Administration in the Transvaal 

 subsequent to the Anglo-Boer war. a first-class School of Agri- 

 culture and Experiment Farm was founded at Potchefstroom, 

 and very ably organized by Mr. Alex. Holm, now Under Secre- 

 tary for Agriculture ( Education) . Before Union a second 

 School of Agriculture was establisiied in the Cape Colony at 

 Grootfontein, near Middelburg. Also at Cedara, in Natal, a 

 similar school had been established, and just prior to Union 

 the Orange Free State Government decided to establish such a 

 school in the Orange Free State. At the date of Union there 

 consequently existed the four Schools of Agriculture at Cedara, 

 Elsenburg. Grootfontein, and Potchefstroom. Since Union a 

 fifth Agricultural School has been established at Glen, near 

 Bloemfontein. At present, therefore, we have five such schools, 

 although the one at Glen is not yet in full working order. 



The latest development in our agricultural education has 

 been the founding of the two Agricultural Faculties at Stellen- 



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