AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. 223 



What everyone interested in the future of South African 

 agriculture should realise in t'his connection, is that in Victoria 

 no effort is spared to enlist the child's ideas and inclinations on 

 behalf of agricultural pursuits, from the very earliest age pos- 

 sible. 



The Victorian Department of Education conitrols 2,000 

 primary schools, with their plots and gardens. Of these schools, 

 700 have regular courses in agriculture and Nature-study, and 

 before leaving the primary school, the pupil is taught the signifi- 

 cance of schoolroom and plot experiments of an elementary char- 

 acter, with plants and crops. 



Next comes the agricultural high school. Ten schools of 

 this type are dotted about the State of Victoria, and each one 

 has its own laboratories and a farm varying in extent from 

 20 to 85 acres. At these schools, one-third of the students' time 

 is given to agricultural and other science, inclusive of agricul- 

 tural chemistry, botany, zoology, farm carpentry, etc., and one- 

 third to practical farm-work. The object of these farms, let 

 me remark here too, is purely demonstrative. 



From the agricultural high school the student passes to one 

 of the colleges whose establishment was authorized under the 

 Victorian Act of i(S84. The two colleges already named have 

 been instituted in order to produce young farmers efficient in 

 every branch of agricultural industry. For this, Dookie pre- 

 scribes a three-year and Longerenong a two-year course. The 

 colleges also carry on experiments in wheat-breeding, fodder- 

 growing, and in connection with horticulture, viticulture, and 

 livestock. 



Of higher grade than Dookie and Longerenong Colleges is 

 the University School of Agriculture. Here a four-years' course 

 of lectures, laboratory and field work leads up to the degree of 

 B.Sc. A shorter course of three years may be taken, on the 

 satisfactory conclusion of which the University grants the student 

 a diploma of agriculture. 



The whole of this series of ascending grades of agricultural 

 education is under the ultimate control of the Victorian Depart- 

 ment of Public Education ; but instruction of a more directly 

 ])ractical character is arranged l)y the Department of Agricul- 

 ture for those who are alread}' engaged in farming. 



This purpose is served by what are called Agricultural and 

 Pastoral Societies, more or less analogous in their nature and 

 functions to the Branches of the Agriculttiral Bureau of South 

 Australia. There are over one hundred of these societies in 

 Victoria. The Department of Agriculture arranges classes and 

 courses of lantern-lectures for any society that may express a 

 desire for these, and that guarantees a minimum attendance of 

 30 at the classes, or of 15 at the lantern-courses. In addition, 

 fhe Department gives a bonus of £10 to each Society that con- 

 stitutes a class, and £5 to each one arranging a lantern-course, 

 in order to stimulate societies to efforts of this kind. 



A school of horticulture is carried on by the Department at 



