Technical Education in Agriculfurd, 
97 
farmer wlio can properly apportion to the various sections of 
his business tite shares of receipts and expenditure which belong 
to them, has gone a long way towards solving the difficulties 
of his profession. Hitherto book-keeping has occupied a some- 
what subsidiary position. This should not continue, for it 
supplies the method by which, from month to month and from 
year to year, a farmer can gauge his position and feel his 
way. A valuable result of a sound system of book-keeping 
is that it suggests to a farmer the discontinuance of that part 
of his business which is carried on at a loss, and the directing 
of his energies more especially to that which is proved 
to be profitable. It deserves to be noted that the Royal 
Agricultural Society long ago recognised the value of book- 
keeping, as a branch of agricultural education, by introducing 
it as an obligatory subject into the syllabus of its Senior Ex- 
amination. 
We might also include what may be termed commercial 
knowledge. There seems to be a great lack — if we take 
England through — of a proper comprehension of the relation of 
markets one to another. Commercial knowledge would, to a con- 
siderable extent, promote the comparison of the markets of dif- 
ferent districts. With the enormous facilities for transport now 
existing, the influence of one market upon another is determined 
not so much by its geographical position as by the means or 
the rapidity by which produce can be transfen-ed from one 
place to another. The railwaj", the steamship, and the telegraph 
help to annihilate distances. In the towns of England we 
consmne bread made of flour grown upon the western prairies 
of North America, and in some of our butchers' shops we find 
mutton raised upon the sheep runs of New Zealand. 
Another branch of technical instruction in agriculture, and 
one which deserves to be made more prominent than ever it has 
been, is that relating to statistics. It is of so much importance, 
that there need be no hesitation in putting it in the front rank. 
The reason for this has been foreshadowed in what has just been 
said about the markets of the world and their virtual proximity 
to each other, owing to the excellent facilities for transport which 
exist. Any farmer — particularly if he be a grazier — who will 
take the trouble to study the agi-icultural statistics of this 
country, will be enabled, to a certain extent, to forecast his 
position, and to see what would probably be the best line for 
him to take in the ensuing season. This assertion is not made 
upon a mere theoretical basis, for the plan has been put into 
practice by more than one shrewd farmer, who, year after year, 
profits by a careful study and analysis of the Agricultural 
VOL. II. T. s. — 5 H 
