140 Stocking Land. 



tion is sometimes disposed of. On the one hand we have men of 

 high authority pronouncing it as a dictum, if not an axiom, that 

 only general education can be given by teachers in public insti- 

 tutions ; but that special education (except in the case of the 

 learned professions) must be " picked up " in actual life. On 

 the other hand the requirements of this actual life are deemed so 

 urgent, that others are disposed to force youths into it before they 

 can possibly have obtained anything like a complete general edu- 

 cation. If a plan can be suggested whereby the preparation for 

 business could be combined for a year or two with the general 

 education, surely the advocates of the latter ought to encourage 

 it. But it is said that special education, except in contact with 

 actual business, is often found to be delusive and mischievous. 

 Why not then maintain or even enforce that contact ? By actual 

 business is meant profit and loss in hondjide transactions. There 

 is, at least, as much to be learnt by losing as by winning, and it is 

 commonly said that a man must burn his fingers who would learn 

 to handle the difliculties of life successfully. It is not necessary, 

 therefore, that a farm or a workshop should pay in order to be 

 instructive, but it is necessary that profit should be aimed it, and 

 the causes of failure be honestlv ascertained and publicly avowed. 

 If live stock are at present the principal source of profit and loss 

 to the farmer, it is clear that a thorough knowledge of its value is 

 a most important part of his training. This value varies, 1st, 

 Avith the age, development, and quality of the animal ; 2nd, with 

 the state of the market. It is one thing to know what the current 

 price of meat or wool is, and this is in our days easily ascertained 

 without any actual intercourse with a market ; it is another 

 thing to know what, according to this market price, is the value 

 at any time of several animals, singly or in lots. 



That this knowledge may be better learned upon a farm 

 stocked and conducted for the purpose of giving this instruction, 

 than picked up in actual life even under favourable circum- 

 stances, seems to me, at least, a reasonable anticipation, till it 

 shall have been disproved by experience. I am, therefore, 

 taking into considerati(m how this element of instruction may 

 best be introduced into our proposed county college, which will 

 aim at teaching so much of farming as a youth just over sixteen 

 years of age may learn without giving up his general studies. 



There can, I think, be no greater difficulty about exercising 

 a class of young men in estimating the weight of animals, than 

 in training a squad of riflemen to judge distances. If the pur- 

 chase of lean stock and the public sale of fat stock be part of the 

 system pursued, it will not be hard further to exercise the judg- 

 ment as to the capabilities of animals, and these two considera- 

 tions — weight and capabilities — determine value. Apart from 



