July, 1912.] 



59 



Education. 



adequately taught in a two years " 

 course :— Geology, Entomology, Engi- 

 neering, Architectural Drawing, &c. 

 Students should be given the oppor- 

 tunity of attending classes in one or 

 more of these subjects, if they wish to 

 do so. In view of the growing import- 

 ance of rural economics and the material 

 advantage to be gained from co-oper- 

 ative production, distribution, and sup- 

 ply, in connection with agriculture, it is 

 highly desirable that these subjects 

 should form part of a course of agricul- 

 tural instruction for intending farmers. 



The Report also refers to the extent to 

 which this class of student should 

 engage in practical farm work while at 

 college, and the opinion is expressed 

 that students should be encouraged to 

 make themselves proficient in all the 

 practical processes of farm work, and 

 should be given a constant opportunity 

 of observing the application on the 

 college farm and on other farms in the 

 neighbourhood, of the principles learnt 

 in the class room ; but it is not thought 

 desirable that they should devote much 

 of the time intended for college study to 

 practical husbandry ; the vacations and 

 occasional afternoors during the terms 

 would provide sufficient opportunity 

 for this. 



The minimum length of courses of the 

 type under consideration should be 

 two winter sessions with one summer 

 term (five terms in all), or three winter 

 sessions. For farmer-students who are 

 able to attend a continuous course, the 

 normal length, in the opinion of the 

 Conference, should be two years (six 

 terms) ; but students who have received 

 a sufficiently good general education to 

 enable them to pass a matriculation ex- 

 amination should be encouraged, if they 

 can afford the time and money, to take a 

 three years 'course and work for a 

 Degree in Agriculture. Other students 

 should be encouraged to obtain a College 

 Diploma or Certificate, which, in every 

 case, should connote knowledge of prac- 

 tical farm work. 



Course for Students Intending to 

 Manage Estates*— The minimum age at 



which this class of student should com- 

 mence their course is 16 years, but pre- 

 ferably these students should not attend 

 college until they are 17 or 18. With 

 these students, as with those dealt with 

 above, it is most desirable that they 

 should have had at least one year's ex- 

 perience of practical farming before 

 attending college in order to take full 

 advantage of the course. The standard 

 of general education should be higher 

 in the case of these students, and 

 the entrance examination should be 

 equivalent to the Oxford or Cambridge 

 Senior Local. A student who was able 

 to produce a higher certificate or degree 

 (including pure science) might be excused 

 the first year's course. 



The Report states that there is prob- 

 ably no institution which devotes itself 

 entirely, or even mainly, to this class of 

 student, and in very few institutions is 

 the agricultural course at present given 

 exactly suited to his requirements. The 

 majority of students of this class should 

 aim at obtaining an agricultural degree. 

 For those, however, who do not propose 

 to study for a degree, the most con 

 venient arrangement will obviously be 

 to require them for the first two years 

 to follow a similar course to that pres- 

 cribed for farmers (but exacting a some- 

 what higher standard), and to devote 

 the third year to specialisation in appro- 

 priate subjects, while continuing their 

 scientific training and knowledge of 

 agriculture in the field as well as in the 

 class room. For the class of student 

 now under consideration, instruction 

 should be provided in the following 

 subjects, in addition to those mentioned 

 above, as required by the student 

 who intends to farm :— Forestry, Agricul- 

 tural Valuations, Rating and Taxation, 

 Agricultural Law (including landlord 

 and tenant), Estate Book-keeping, Build- 

 ing Construction, and, in some cases, 

 Advanced Surveying Levelling. It 

 would not be necessary, however, tor 

 instruction in all these subjects to be 

 postponed until the third year, and it is 

 recommended that an opportunity should 

 be given to students who intend to farm 

 a« well aa those who intend to manage. 



