president's address^ — SECTION G. 163 



siirphxs to pay some of the costs of working the other part, which 

 I will call the experimental section. This, I maintain, must be 

 worked at the expense of the State, for whether it embraces 10 or 

 100 acres, it cannot be expected to give yields of great value in a 

 commercial sense. Experiments with new cereals, new fruit, new 

 crops of any kind, would bring no money returns, for the simple 

 reason that the resultinij yields would have to be distributed free 

 to the surrounding farmers for further experiments. 



The labor entailed in cultivating small plots — for manuring, 

 treatment of pests and diseases, and many other points of interest — 

 is always out of proportion to the area of laud cultivated, and gives 

 practically no return in the market. I hope therefore that those 

 who believe that our prosperity must come from the soil will be 

 the last to object to a fair expenditure from the public purse, for 

 the educational agencies in connection with a complete scheme of 

 agricultural education such as I have endeavored to describe ; for 

 there seems to be no valid reason why public money should not be 

 expended as liberally on agricultural education as has been done 

 in the past years for our professional men at the university, and 

 oiu- commercial men at our grammar schools, high schools, and 

 national schools. 



I have given most of my attention to the question of educating 

 the young, because I feel that the best return is to be expected 

 from them ; but there is also a great deal to be done in educating 

 the adult farming population. For their benefit experimental 

 stations are scattered over the length and breadth of the best 

 agricultural countries of the Old World and America. In this last 

 coimtry alone there are fifty-eight such stations. Here a small 

 area of ground is cultivated entirely at the expense of the State, 

 and purely for experimental purposes. There is one of these in 

 each State or Territory, where experiments with any new crops, 

 manures, new methods of treatment, new implements, new varieties 

 of fruit, methods of treating fungus diseases and insect pests, and 

 many other similar matters are dealt with, the results are com- 

 municated to the farmers interested, and the method of working 

 always open for their inspection and criticism. There is room for 

 a lew of these stations throughout each of our colonies, at which 

 we shall be able to work out the many problems that are awaiting 

 our attention. The annual expenditure on each experimental 

 station would not be heavy, and should surely be as fair a charge 

 on the public purse as that incurred on any of our other schools 

 and educational institutions so liberally assisted by the State. 



We have to settle the best varieties of grapes for our different 

 districts, and the best method of treating them, in order to make 

 distinctive Australian wines of a constant quality and recognised 

 value ; we have to determine the varieties of fruit that will best 

 suit our different climatic regions, besides introducing new sorts 

 not yet tried ; we have to determine the most economical ways of 



