256 president's address — section k. 



dullest imaginations. We hear of special trains travelling from 

 district to district, carrying with them experts and their labora- 

 tories, cinema operators, models, live stock, &c. No doubt these 

 methods, which are as yet foreign to us, are productive of good 

 in congenial surroundings; and although they savour somewhat of 

 revival meetings and travelling shows, it is to be hoped that their 

 intluence will prove less evanescent. Nevertheless, for our own 

 special conditions, I know of no more effective means of reaching 

 the tiller of the soil than what is known as the Agricultural 

 Bureau system established in South Australia since 1888.* Under 

 this system, agriculturists scattered all over the State are grouped 

 together into local branches. Of these there to-day 212 in exis- 

 tence, aggregating 5,350 members. These branches may be said 

 to exist for the mutual improvement of members, and for the 

 advancement of the agricultural industries of the district. They 

 hold regular monthly meetings at which questions of general and 

 local mojnent are discussed. Once a year they attend combined 

 district meetings, and the central Adelaide meeting. They make 

 arrangements for visits, addresses, and demonstrations by officers 

 of the Department of Agriculture. They control field trials; they 

 carry out experimental work in co-operation with the Department ; 

 and locally their social intluence is very considerable. I look upon 

 the rapid ado'ption of superphospha,tes in Australian farming as 

 one of the most telling revolutions in practice of recent times. To 

 South Australia alone it has already been worth between 

 25,000,000 and 30,000,000 sterling. It received its first impetus 

 in So'Uth Australia, and had it not been for the Agricultural 

 Bureau system, would probably still be struggling ineffectually 

 against, prajurfico^and ignorance. And very much the same can 

 be ssiid of the introduction of spraying among fruit trees, and of 

 most ether minor improvements adopted within recent times. In 

 brief, then, whilst his daily avocations will cC'Titinue and complete 

 the agriculturist's training, such personal experience as he may 

 acquire is necessarily limited by his isolated enviroaiment. It is 

 essential to the State that he be kept in touch with the progress 

 of the outside world, and, in my view, this can best be dowe bv 

 organizing all agriculturists on the lines so successfully followed 

 in South Australia. 



I have submitted for your consideration a few ideas on agricul 

 tural education and training. I have made the infant my startiftg 

 point, and closed with the experienced adult. It follows that, in 

 the time at my disposal, I can have done no- inore than glance at a 

 few aspects of the problem which circumstances had rendered 

 familiar to me. I know that to-day we live in an age of revolu- 

 tiouary ideas in matters educational; nevertheless, personally, I 

 abide by the old tried ways, believing that a thorough education 

 is the birthright of every one of us. and deprecating specialization 

 and technical tiaining until such time as the mind has been 



