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with benefit for years, will be found entered all the good that he has 

 done on his farm, all that might have been done differently to advan- 

 tage, and \he innovatious that the judges think he had better make 

 in his nsiial practice. The lessons, thus, are given on the spot, 

 after discussion with ihe competitor, while the judges are passing 

 field by field through the farm. 



There, is a system t!iat is as pleasant as it is practical and useful. It 

 is good advice, disinterested advice, and consequently welcome ad- 

 vice, and therefore well followed, to Ihe great benefit of the farmer as 

 well as an example to the whole district, and I may say that people 

 accept it with gratitude and that it may be truly said to be effective. 

 It is " An object-lesson," to use a school. term, is this question dis- 

 cussed on the very spot where the finger can be laid on all that i.>s 

 deficient as well as on all that is efficient. 



Competitors have declared that the visit of the judges of agricultural 

 merit marks a quite novel era in their system of farming ; that they 

 were pleased with the advice offered, and would avail themselves of 

 it at once ; and that it was more valuable to them than any medals 

 or diplomas that might be awarded to them. 



The managers of our dairy-association sometimes employ teachers 

 who, furnished with the requisite implements, travel through the 

 country teaching the best w^ay of making butter at farm-houses ; the 

 plan is found to be a good one, and wherever these teachers have 

 been, it is proved that benefit has been derived from their lessons ; 

 and so with the tours of our judges of agricultural merit. The farms 

 that are submitted for competition are naturally the best managed i u 

 the district, and by improving them by the advice of the judges we 

 are creating model-farms without cost to the province. 



We are going, if possible, to bring this travelling farm-school to 

 perfection. The judges are instructed to remain on the farm of each 

 competitor as long as there is any good to be done as regards his sys- 

 tem of cultivation. The distribution of prizes, although made with 

 never so much care and judgment, becomes thus a merely secondary 

 matter in the duties of the judges. Their first duty is to teach, to 

 reform practice, and then to reward. I have every reason to congra- 

 tulate myself on this innovation. After the successful issue of the dairy- 

 school, it is the one that I think the most valuable. It is not, here, 

 the boy who goes to school, it is the school that goes to the boy in 



