250 president's address — section k. 



future of those who are able to- make of an agricultural college easy 

 stepping-stones to their new and unfamiliar occupations; and for 

 the latter purpose alone the State would be well justified in main- 

 taining these colleges as half-way houses between town and 

 country. 



How can technical training be imparted to best advantage at an 

 agricultural college ? This is a question upon which opinions are 

 ajit to differ much, and it would seem that in individual concrete 

 cases, we cannot escape the influence of expediency and of local 

 conditions. At all events, we have no right to imply that others 

 are wrong, because in such matters they do not doi as we do. In 

 Europe, and I believe this to be so in America also, the student's 

 familiarity with ordinary farm work and operations is taken for 

 granted, and the course of training is arranged accordingly! 

 Hence, the paramount importance of theoretical instruction at the 

 expense of actual practice, which, if not wholly banished, is very 

 much in the background, and confined to periodical out-door class 

 demonstrations of brief duration. If we are to assume that all 

 those in attendance are sons of agriculturists, familiar with farm 

 operaticiis from their infancy, this arrangement undoubtedly ha=i 

 its advantages. It leaves free for theoretical training much 

 precious time v/hich would otTierwise be devoted to manual opera- 

 tions. The necessity of surrounding the' college with a large and 

 expensively equipped farm does not arise, and funds are freed for 

 more thorough scientific and technical equipment. Finally, the 

 number of studtiits in attendance is no longer limited by the mean) 

 available for adequate experience in manual operations, but merely 

 by house and class-room accommodation. 



In A ustralia, this practice has not hitherto found favour ; and 

 since the Australian system originated at Roseworthy, and was 

 passed on subsequently toi Dookie and Hawkesbury, I may be 

 pardoned for illustrating my points from that institution with 

 which I am best acquainted. In the matter of a general co^urse of 

 training, our Al stralian agricultural colleges have run counter to 

 the European point of view. They have concluded, and rightly 

 so, in my view^ that in the absence of adeqxxate acquaintance with 

 general farm practice, all theoretical instrnction must continue 

 more or less futile. They have found that the average student 

 does not possess this acquaintance, and they have modified -the 

 curriculum accordingly. The fact that over 64 per cent, of those 

 in attendance at Roseworthy are town-bred, would appear toi vonch 

 for the soundness of this attitude. Hence, to every college has 

 been attached a large and well-equipped farm, the manual opera- 

 tions of which are carried out almost entirely by students under 

 competent supervision. Usually the student's work-time is divided 

 into two equal parts; one-half, loreferably alternate days^ is given 

 up to theoretical instruction and demonstrations, and the other to 

 seasonable farm work. It follows, therefore, that familiarity with 



