160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



You will notice that it has not been outlined upon the chart. 

 There is no one thing that the college has been so criticised 

 for, by its students, by its alumni, by the people at large, 

 as the establishment of this two years' course, but I do not 

 believe, I cannot believe, that those who criticise it under- 

 stand it. It is claimed that it is a simple catch-all for those 

 men without brains who cannot stay in a four years' course ; 

 that they are dropped out of the four years' course into the 

 two, and that there is no definite course laid down. That is 

 utterly false. There are only two or three men (I think I 

 am within bounds) of those who came to take the four years' 

 course and were not well enough prepared to go into it who 

 went into the two years' course, and no men have been 

 dropped from the four years' course into the two years'. 

 Our experience has been quite the reverse. Men have 

 entered the four years' course from the two. The course as 

 laid down is very much the same as that of the four years'. 

 The course in agriculture touches exactly the same topies, 

 only it is elementary ; necessarily you cannot carry it as far 

 as you can with those who are taking the four years' course. 

 There is a good horticultural course, a good course in 

 veterinary. The elements of chemistry and mathematics 

 arc taught, and there is a first-class English course. You 

 cannot expect to give in two years' time the same instruc- 

 tions that you can in four. The course was established to 

 give a chance to those young men who have not the means 

 or time to spend four years in college. Is not that working 

 in the very interests of agriculture ? Is not that working in 

 the interests of the farmer ? Those farmers who cannot send 

 their boys to take the full course can give them the two 

 years' course. 



No allusion has been made to the dairy course, for the 

 reason that it is not yet established. The course will be 

 submitted to the committee pn course of study and faculty 

 probably next week. It is a dairy course of three months, 

 lasting from January through March. 



A very great pressure has been brought to bear upon us 

 during the last year or two to change the course and intro- 

 duce mechanical and scientific courses. We should then 



