226 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. 



trol in various parts of New South Wales, the University instruc- 

 tion now definitely established is expected to lessen the difficul- 

 ties in the future. 



Hawkesbury College is 38 miles from Sydney, and affords 

 intending farmers a three-years course in the science and practice 

 of agriculture, leading up to a diploma. 



Here, too, the authorities of the Department and the staff 

 of the College expressly disclaim any idea of turning out ex- 

 perts. They consider the latter to be the function of the Univer- 

 sity. It was quite amusing to notice how, almost at the outset of 

 each visit, this disclaimer was made by one or other member 

 of the staff' of every institution visited in the different States. At 

 Hawkesbury, in the unavoidable absence of the principal, the 

 verv large party of visitors was welcomed by Mr. Cuthbert Potts, 

 B.A., Lecturer in Chemistry and Physics, and in his address of 

 welcome Mr. Potts made it plain that the College did not con- 

 cern itself in the training of scientists, 'but aimed at training 

 practical farmers. The institution trains students for the man- 

 agement of mixed farms, irrigation farms, dairy, wheat, piggery, 

 and poultrv farms, orchards and vineyards. There is another 

 section of the College which prepares students for posts as dairy- 

 factory managers, butter-makers, cheesemakers, milk-testers, and 

 inspectors. 



The student may get his three-years course at Hawkesbury, 

 and then go for a specialized pur]X)se either to Wagga-Wagga or 

 Bathurst, institutions to which reference will be made later on. 

 Hawkesbury College, where the teaching is in general more ad- 

 vanced than at those two institutions, can accommodate 200 

 students. The main building is cjuadrangular in plan, lighted 

 throughout electrically. In the students' quarters — a two-storied 

 brick building^ — each student has a separate room. I noticed that 

 many of the walls of the Hawkesbury main and out-buildings are 

 covered with a creeping ficus {F. repcns). It needs pruning 

 twice or thrice in the course of a year, but compensates for thi^ 

 trouble by yielding a good supply of edible figs. 



Of Hawkesbury's three-year course the first year is devoted 

 to elementary instruction, and the last two years to practical 

 agriculture. Thrcughout this whole course the instruction given 

 is general in it> character. There is also a separate two-years 

 dairy course*, and students may take both the general and the 

 dairy course within a period of four years. Hawkesbury further- 

 more provides short courses for older men who wish to specialise. 



There were 185 students in residence at the College just 

 before the war, but by the time our visit took place many had 

 volunteered for active service and left. 



The daily round of instruction at Hawkesbury commences 

 at exactly the same hours as if the students were already en- 

 gaged in their profession of farming, i.e., those occupied in field- 



* The full official title of the institution is " Hawkesbury Agricultural 

 College, Dairy School, and Experiment Farm." 



