230 A(;KKI'LTL'RAL education in AUSTKALI/I 



should, within twelve months of the completion of their course,. 

 prove satisfactorily that they have permanently settled in New 

 South Wales, £10 out of their first year's fees is refunded to 

 them. 



Queensland, 



Its Colleges and Experiment Stations. 



In the State of Queensland the teaching^ of horticulture,, 

 arboriculture, and elementary agriculture, in all State schools,, 

 is encouraged by the Department of Public Instruction, prizes 

 being awarded for the best-kept school-gardens, and for the 

 best experimental agricultural work carried out by the scholars ; 

 and the Agricultural College at Gatton, also under State control,, 

 accomplishes valuable service in the training of the young men 

 of the country for the farming profession, and for practical 

 experimental work in agriculture. Here scientific farmint>' and 

 dairying are taught, and stud-stock are kept, from which dairy- 

 men and others in search of first-class stock may be supplied. 



The State, moreover, owns some half-a-dozen farms of 

 mixed type, situated in widely-separated districts. It is the ftmc- 

 .tion of these farms to ascertain by experiment which crops and 

 methods of cultivation are the most suited to local conditions. 

 The information thus gained is made available to the farmers 

 round about. At two oi these farms a])prentices are taken.* 



At Cairns, in the Kamerunga State Nursery, tropical j^ro- 

 ducts are tested and propagated ; at Mackay there is a sugar 

 experiment station, and at Yeerongpilly, on the South-coast 

 line, experiments in connection with the prevention and treat- 

 ment of outbreaks of disease in stock are pursued. 



All these institutions are under the direct supervision of the 

 Department of Agriculture. By means of all its State farms, 

 specialised as well as more generalised, the Queensland Govern- 

 ment seeks to demonstrate iti a practical maner what the land 

 is capable of producing profitably. 



In Central Queensland, that extensive area of almost limit- 

 less possibilities, the bulk of whose 136 million acres is devoted 

 to the raising of sheep, cattle, and horses, there are two State 

 farms, one at Warren, 18 miles from Rockhampton, and the 

 other — in the Emerald district — at Gindie, 178 miles from Rock- 

 hampton. The Warren farm is relatively small, comprising only 

 about 1,000 acres, of which less than 200 are under cultivation. 

 It is intended, as soon as possible, to establish classes in general 

 agriculture here for a limited number of students. 



The Gindie farm is about ten times the size of that at War- 

 ren, but only a small extent — about 100 acres — is under crops, 

 mostly wheat, one of the chief features of the farm being the 

 breeding of stock. There are 1,000 Merino sheep at Gindie, with 

 a small stud of the Hazeldine strain, and 500 grade beef-Short- 

 horns. Both these farms have reinforced-concrete silos of 100 



* Vide "Our First Half-century: A Review of Queensland Progress." 

 (1909), 128, 129. 



