150 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



of helpful results in the increase of production on a profitable 

 basis." 



And that, as a matter of necessity, carries with it instruc- 

 tion in that particular item of farm management in which 

 our farmers are notoriously most deficient, namely, account 

 keeping. In Germany, even in advanced Rhineland, organ- 

 isers of co-operative societies have found it advisable to 

 form a special department for teaching their societies correct 

 account keeping. That has nothing to do with either audit 

 or inspection. The Department simply receives the socie- 

 ties' rough data and puts them into book-keeping shape, so 

 as to instruct the Committees how after a time to do the 

 work for themselves. Such service could not of course be 

 offered to individual farmers, because it would be con- 

 sidered prying. Farmers would be naturally shy to disclose 

 the facts. However, the substance of the matter necessarily 

 finds a place in " Farm Management." 



Another " special " subject deserving at any rate of 

 mention, although relating rather to Research than to 

 Education, is that committed in the United States to the 

 " Bureau of Soils," and in Belgium to that of " Soils and 

 Climates," occupying stations in different parts of the 

 kingdom. The work to be done is not merely one of che- 

 mical analysis of soils, although that must inevitably form 

 part of it. A collocation of the same constituents in the soil 

 may, as we know, coexist with quite distinct qualifications 

 for practical treatment. The observations made by experts 

 in a scientific way are said in both countries to have been 

 found exceedingly useful. 



There is one point more which requires to be noticed. 

 That is the point of teachers, be it at Colleges or schools, 

 or be it at movable lectures, or in the buttonhole talk with 

 individual farmers, which has been referred to as the most 

 effective first stage of Education. From what one has seen 

 in this country it is to be feared that those responsible for 

 the organisation of Education are not yet fully alive to all 

 the requirements to be met for really effective teaching. 

 We have seen men sent about by societies which have 

 set themselves the task of teaching and organising, about 



