8urvey of the Work, &c., of Victorian Agricultural Department. 811 



Conclusion. 



I have intentionally not given you an exhaustive report on the 

 wo]-k of the De])artment as this would be impossible in a short paper; 

 besides full details will be found in the Jour^ial of Agriculture and 

 the numerous Bulletins that have been issued during- the year, I 

 have however given a short review of the work which is being done, 

 pointing out in which direction it is advisable to work in the 

 immediate future with the money which is likely to be available. 

 Greater schemes would mean more money, consequently we must con- 

 fine ourselves to what is possible. 



Speaking generally, I consider that a Department of Agriculture 

 can better advance the interests of an agricultural community by in- 

 struction than by any other means. A knowledge of facts, scientific 

 and practical, in connection with a man's business is a great aid to his 

 success. To teach boys in a school and students in a college is of course 

 a simple jn'oblem, but how to instruct an agricultural community, 

 each member of which is busily employed both bodily and mentally 

 with his everyday work, is a difficult problem. If this could be done 

 by distributing printed literature, then Victorian agriculturists oiight 

 to be well educated already as the weekly papers are full of useful 

 information, and interesting articles fi'om all sources are published in 

 their pages. 



A Chair of Agriculture at the University would be useful in 

 educating men who would afterwards become lecturers and officers of 

 the Department of Agriculture, but farmers' sons would never attend 

 in any great number, and I am afraid that those who did would not 

 return to the plough. 



Agricultural colleges do not meet the wants of those who cannot 

 spare the time to attend. The only method, so far as farmers are 

 concerned, worth spending money upon, is that in which the teacher is 

 sent to those requiring to be taught. Consequently as long as the 

 Department of Agriculture is under my control, I will forward this 

 method whenever there is an opportunity. 



The next important function of a Department of Agriculture is 

 the carrying out of a vigorous and extensive system of experimental 

 work in connection with all agricultural industries so that facts useful 

 to the farmer may be established. Indeed, teaching without the 

 knowledge gained by experiment is often misleading. Results of ex- 

 periments in Europe and America used as a basis of instruction would 

 be utterly useless here. Of what use would instruction in manuring 

 be without the knowledge that has been gained in Victoria during 

 the last five years. If a chemist who was not in possession of this 

 knowledge came to Australia and analysed your northern soils, he 

 would tell you that you must apply nitrogen and that such small 

 quantities as 50 to 75 lbs. of superphosphate would be quite valueless. 

 Yet we know that he would be wrong in both instances. 



If we are to instruct the farmer we must have facts, and these 

 facts can only be got by experiments. I will therefore forward 

 experimental work whenever possible. 



