AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 557 



golden opportunity of his life. He gets out of touch with academic 

 life and studies ; discipline and mental training are relaxed ; he 

 abandons his elementary studies at a stage when their practical 

 application is not appreciated or understood ; he gets into a 

 groove in the country and he fails to secure that mental and 

 technical training which is so essential to his success. Such cases 

 are constantly being met with in the bush. The argument that a 

 lad may choose badly has no validity in practical experience. 



Some 1300 students have been trained at the Hawkesbury 

 Agricultural College, and 72 per cent, of these are known to be 

 permanently engaged in agricultural pursuits. The agricultural 

 college course of three years is adopted in three colleges in the 

 Commonwealth — Roseworthy, Gatton and Hawkesbury. One year 

 is allowed to students attending the full course in a high school 

 or agricultural continuation school when entering Roseworthy or 

 Hawkesbury. 



The syllabus of the Hawkesbury College commences : — 



" The primary object that the Department of Agriculture had in view in 

 estabUshing the above-named College and Farm was to teach the science 

 of agriculture and the various other sciences connected therewith, and their 

 practical application in the cultivation of the soil and the rearing and manage- 

 ment of stock, and to qualify its students as far as possible for the profitable 

 management of farms, dairies, orchards, or vineyards, either as proprietors 

 or paid managers of same. To this end it is deemed indispensably necessary 

 that every young man who may be admitted to the College shall learn to 

 labour and become proficient in the use of the various implements of husbandry 

 employed on the farm, and in the management of the various kinds of live 

 stock connected therewith. Each student therefore is required to perform 

 a certain amount of labour." 



Thus we have a combination of " brain craft " with " hand craft." 

 In pursuance of this policy students are engaged on alternate 

 days in all the practical operations of the farm, orchard and dairy 

 and in the management of stock. The work is arranged so that 

 each student becomes familiar with every implement, horse and 

 method on the farm, and acquires dexterity in each operation. 



The aim throughout is to afford a student such training as 

 will equip him for a useful and profitable life on the land. The 

 general conditions to be observed in obtaining admission to this 

 college include an entrance examination or the possession of a 

 certificate showing that the applicant has attained a degree of 

 educational efficiency from some public school or examining 

 body equal to that prescribed for the college entrance examination. 

 Each student is required to pass the annual examination at the 

 end of each year of the course before being admitted to that of 

 the following year. 



I may here be permitted to emphasise the necessity for a 

 change in the period allotted to the holding of annual examina- 

 tions. We seem to have been guided by old world tradition in 

 this regard. The period selected in England, viz., December, is 

 cold in temperature and at a time when farming operations are 



