Journal of the Department 

 OF Agriculture. 



Vol. I. OCTOBER, 1920. No. 7. 



Published monthlj' in Englisli and Afrikaans by the Department of Agriculture, 



Union of South Africa. 



Subscription : Within the Union and South- West Protectorate, 5s, (otherwise SSm) 

 per annum, post free, payable in advance. 



Applications, with subscriptions, to be sent to the Government 

 Printer, Box 378, Pretoria. 



NOTES. 



Retirement of the Secretary for Agriculture. 



At the end of Avigiist last Mr. F. B. Smitli relinquished the post 

 of Secretary for Agriculture, })roceediug ou leave prior to retiring 

 on pension after nearly eighteen and a half years' service in South 

 Africa. The son of a fanner and educated privately and at 

 Camhridge, Mr. Smith has ahvays heen interested in the relations of 

 State to agriculture. He held various posts in England, his last 

 being Professor of Agricultuie and Vice-Principal at the vSouth- 

 E]astern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent, an institution with wliich 

 the names of eminent men in ihe agricultural world are connected, 

 and in the building- up of which Mr. Smith was prominently con- 

 cerned. In 19U0 he made an extensive tour in tlie United States 

 and Canada, where he investigated, the system of agricultural educa- 

 tion in vogue, publishing the result of his observations in a book 

 entitled " Agriculture in the Xew AVorld." 



Mr. Smith's first connection with South Africa dates from the 

 26th April, 1902, when he came out from England to the post of 

 Agricultural Adviser to the Governor of the Transvaal, under Crown 

 Government, subsequently changed to Director of Agriculture in 

 September, 1902. Soon after li'is arrival he wrote a report to Lord 

 Milner regarding the organization of agriculture in the Transvaal, 

 and its recommendations Avere adopted almost entirely. Mr. Smith 

 was a member of the Transvaal Legislative Assembly in Crown 

 Colony days, and was also a member of the Transvaal Indigency 

 Commission, the report of which is so well known. He was an original 

 member of the Council of the University College in Johannesburg, 

 and on its division into the vSchool of Mines and the Transvaal 

 University College in Pretoria, became a member of the Council of 



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