THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



425 



Agricultural 



THE following is a statement by Mr. A. 

 N. Pearson, Victorian Chemist for 

 Agriculture, re Agricultural Education in 

 Victoria. The statement has been sent, 

 with other papers, to the Minister of 

 Agriculture in response to a request for 

 information as to Victorian methods of 

 agricaltural education. The statement is 

 somewhat lengthy, and much of what is 

 recommended may be unsuitable to the 

 present needs of this Colony, but any 

 curtailment would lessen the general 

 value of the statement and be unjust to 

 its author. The principles on which Mr. 

 Pearson bases his various suggestions are, 

 of course, universally applicable. It may 

 be desirable to mention here that the 

 white population of Victoria is about one 

 million and a quarter, and that the annual 

 agricultural products amount to nearly 

 £16,000,000 in value :— 



I have the honour to supply sugges- 

 tions as to an organic scheme of agricul- 

 tural education in Victoria. It, of course, 

 goes without saying that any scheme of 

 education must have reference to the 

 conditions of the community in which it 

 is to be applied. Also, it will gener- 

 ally be admitted that it is better to in- 

 troduce improvement gradually by deve- 

 lopment out of existing methods and ma- 

 chinery rather than by sudden innovation. 

 I have endeavoured to be guided by these 

 general considerations in dealing with 

 the subject. 



The subject natiirally presents itself 

 under three headings, as it relates, firstly, 

 to children at school; secondly, to youths 

 in training; and thirdly, to adults in 

 practice. 



Children at School. 

 The general principles which should 

 regulate the teaching of children are so 

 admirably laid down in your Commis- 

 sion's Second Progress Eeport that it is 

 unnecessary for me to say that it would 

 be absurd to make any pretension of 

 teaching farming at primary schools. 

 The proper purpose of a child's educa- 

 tion is to draw out and discipline its 

 various facilities, and to this end the 

 child is made to exercise its growing fae- 



Educaiionm 



ulties on some subject-matter. The 

 subjects to which a child's attention may 

 be directed are various, and no doubt 

 some have better educational values than 

 others ; but, other things being equal, it 

 is better to train a child by leading it 

 to observe and think about facts with 

 which it will have to employ itself in 

 adult life, than by engaging its early 

 thoughts on subject-matter of which it 

 can afterwards make little direct use. 



I am of opinion that certain elemen- 

 tary facts of agriculture lend themselves 

 readily to educational purposes, and thai 

 by employing them in a proper way it is 

 possible to so ingrain in the young minds 

 of an .agricultural population facts 

 of primary importance that they will be- 

 come permanently assimilated, and serve 

 for automatic guidance in the practical 

 work of later life. 



For instance, a child of nine or ten 

 years may be allowed to place seeds of 

 wheat between moist flannel, and observe 

 day by day the germination and growth 

 of root and stent; he may measure that 

 growth and record it: he may see how 

 the delicate rootlets are covered by still 

 more delicate root hairs: and may be al- 

 lowed to examine them through a magni- 

 fying glass; it can be nointed out to him 

 how the tips of ihe roots naturally curve 

 down and try and pierce through the 

 flannel, and how the young blades 

 seek their way from between the 

 flannel and grow upwards and towards 

 the window or other source of light. He 

 may be allowed to give more water tc 

 some, less to others, and none to others 

 again, and will thus get definite know- 

 ledg-e of the primary importance of mois- 

 ture to plant life. He may keep some 

 of the young plants in the dark, and ob- 

 serve the pale, sickly growth, and then 

 bring them out into tlie light, and see 

 how quickly they turn green. I-ater on 

 the child may be allowed to sow the seed 

 in boxes; the boxes may have movable 

 sides, one side perhaps may be of glass; 

 some of the boxes mav be shallow and 

 some deep. By-and-bye he may be al- 

 lowed to remove one side of each box and 



