658 



Report of the Land Division. 



[NOV, 



can only be given by special instructors, and it would best 

 be given in systematic courses at winter agricultural schools ; 

 but until schools are available local classes must take their 

 place. Even when schools have been provided, winter classes 

 would have to be conducted for the benefit of those who could 

 not attend a school. 



Local Lectures. — In some respects the local class must be 

 regarded as a makeshift for the more systematic course of 

 the winter school ; but classes held by itinerant instructors 

 have another and more appropriate purpose. The education 

 of the farmer is not completed when he leaves the agricul- 

 tural college or the winter school. In an art like agriculture 

 new systems are always receiving trial, new manures and 

 feeding stuffs come into use, new varieties of crops are being 

 raised, and the farmer must be kept informed of these and 

 similar subjects which are likely to assist him in improving 

 his methods. 



If then we review the educational needs of the future 

 occupier of land, we find that whether he is to be a large 

 farmer or a small holder two types of instruction are called 

 for ; in the first place there must be the means of giving him 

 general education, either in secondary schools or in evening 

 schools, until he is about 17 years of age, and later, when he 

 has reached the age at which he begins to ask for information, 

 special instruction in agriculture must be provided. In the 

 case of the young farmer of from 17 to 23 special instruction 

 should take a systematic form, and can best be given at 

 agricultural schools or colleges; but after the farmer has 

 settled down on a farm of his own the instruction must be 

 such as can be given at local classes. 



The Report of the Land Division of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture and Fisheries for 1908 has been issued in two parts. 



Part I., of which a summary has been 

 Report of the given in this Journal (October, 1909, 

 Land Division. p. 575), dealt with the proceedings 

 under the Small Holdings Act, while 

 Part II. describes the proceedings of the Board under the 

 Allotments, Universities and College Estates, Improvement 

 of Land, and certain other Acts. (Cd. 4,895, price 8Jd.) 



