408 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1881 
If, however, the mother-country does not awaken 
to an adequate sense of the necessities of the case, 
she will most certainly be speedily distanced by her 
daughters at the ends of the earth. In Canada and 
throughout Australasia, a perfect furore has set in 
for the establishment of Technical, and, especially, 
Agricultural Schools. Bills to establish " Schools of 
Agriculture" are among the most popular measures 
of Colonial politicians, and already much has been 
done in the far South. New Zealand occupies the 
foremost position with its Agricultural College, to 
which is attached a model farm, a learned Director, 
and a well-organized teaching staff ; Victoria has an 
Experimental Farm with a School attached ; and 
South Australia and Queensland have Experimental 
Gardens and Forest Establishments. New South Wales 
lags behind, but she is speedily to make amends, and 
very shortly Agricultural Schools or Colleges will be 
found in all the Australian Colonies. The plan adopted 
may be judged from the following extracts from Aus- 
tralian papers referring to the New Zealand estab- 
lishment : — 
"Our neighbours in New Zealand are wisely aiming 
at tilling the field of youthful thought and sow- 
ing seeds of knowledge in the practice and science 
of agriculture. With (his laudable object in view 
a school of agriculture has been establshed, in con- 
nexion with the Canterbury College, on a farm of 
500 acres, 12 miles distant from Christchurch. The 
school buildings comprise lecture-theatre, library and 
museum, chemical laboratory, separate bedrooms for 
20 students, with all the other requisite conveniences, 
together with quarters for the director. Stables, granary, 
cowhouses, dairy, piggeries, &c, have been erected 
on the farm. The best of labour-saving machinery and 
implements have been selected, and the dairy utensils, 
include the most recent improvements connected with 
the manufacture of cheese and butter. A. portion 
of the farm is devoted to experimental purposes, to 
test the merits of different methods of cultivation, 
the effect of manures on various crops, the qualities 
of native and exotic grasses, the suitability and com- 
parative worth of new varieties of cereals, roots, fodder, 
and other plants. The students will take part in the 
work of the farm, and will thus acquire a practical 
knowledge of all kinds of farm work, the manage- 
ment of stock, and the making of butter and cheese. 
Land surveying and levelliug will also be taught, and 
the course of instruction will include the theory of 
agriculture in all its bearings— the origin and physical 
properties of soils, the effects of air and rain on 
fallowed soils, use of manures, draining, culti- ' 
vation a-'d harvesting cereal and other crops, 
&c. Also chemistry as applied to agriculture ; biology, 
physiological botany and entomology, geology and 
physical geography, veterinary medicine and surgery, 
mathematics and book-keeping. The course of in- ' 
struction is to extend over three years, and there will 
he three terms in each year. Six scholarships have 
been established, which entitle the holders to board, 
lodging, and instruction at the school free of all cost. 
These scbolarsl ips will be open to public competi- 
tion. Candidates may reside in any part of the New 
Zealand, and must be between 15 and 19 years of age." 
The Director says : — 
" To the end that the instruction imparted in the 
school should be, in the first place, eminently prac- 
tical, farm work, on the part of the students, must be 
compulsory, and its proper performance be made a 
condition of studentship that must be rigorously en- 
forced. It is found in America difficult to enforce 
this condition without some payment for results ; and 
for this, as well as for another obvious reason, I would 
strenuously advocate the adoption of payment for 
work done by the students during the second and third 
year of the oourse, and alsou for harvest work done 
during the first year, providing that tuch work be 
efficiently done. I think payment should be made by 
the hour, or by the piece, according to quality and 
amount of work done." Twenty students will be 
received, and these with three practical farm-bands are 
to do the entire work of the farm. What I bis work will 
consist of is very clearly detailed in the sketch time-table 
for the fir-t year. We quote from the report: — 
Monday : 8 to 10, ploughing or other work with horses; 
10 to 11, dairy (utensils); 11 to 12, lecture (agri- 
culture) : 2 to 3, lecture (chemistry); 3 to 430, 
arithmetic ; 4.30 to 5, milking. Tuesday : 7 to 7,30 
milking; 8.30 to 10, laboratory; 10 to 11 lecture (biology); 
11 to 12, arithmetic; 1 to 3, ploughing or other work with 
horses; 3 to 4, field class (tot anical) ; 430 to 5, milk- 
ing or pig-feeding. Wednesday : 7 to 7.30, milking 
or pig-feeding ; 9 to 10, arithmetic ; 10 to 12, plough- 
ing or other work with horses; 1.30 to 2.30, farm 
clas9 ; 2.30 to 4.30, hedging or other farm work. 
Thursday ; 7 to 7.30, milking, &c. ; 9 to 10, arith- 
metic; 10 to 11, laboratory ; 11 to 12, lecture (azri- 
culture) ; 1 to 2, dairy (utensils) ; 2 to 3. 1< cture 
(chemistry) ; 3 to 5, ploughing or other work with 
horses. Friday ; 8 to 10, ploughing or other work 
with horses; 10 to 11, lecture (physical geography); 
11 to 12, arithmetic ; 1 to 3, hedging or other farm 
work ; 3 to 4, arithmetic ; 4 to 5, milking, feeding 
pigs, &c. Saturday; 9 to 11, examination. Thus 
the time of the students will be about equally divided 
between outdoor and indoor work, and the object 
plainly is to be turn out thoroughly practical men. 
An experimental field is to be provided, so that the 
effects manuring may be closely noticed. A meteoro- 
logical report will be published weekly, and chemical 
analyses of such substances as manures, soils, and 
mineral substances will be undertaken. The farm year 
is to be divided into three terms, two of these being con- 
temporaneous with the college to which the school 
is attached, and on the whole it would seem an ex- 
cellent work is about to be performed." 
It is not alone though in Anglo-Saxon communities 
that we find special attention now given to the need 
of providing Agricultural Education and of the State 
encouraging the development of scientific Agriculture. 
In Japan a Minister of Agriculture and Commerce 
was recently appointed, and one of his first duties 
was to organize an exhibition of national Japanese 
industries. In China it has been determined . to estab- 
lish Colleges for technical as well as general educa- 
tion, and the Chinese authorities are to send no more 
students to Europe or America for their education. 
In India perhaps the most notable event of Lord 
Ripon'a rigime has been the re-establishment, with a 
considerable flourish of trumpets, of Lord Mayo's Agri- 
cultural Department, and much attention is promised 
henceforward to all that concerns the development of 
agricultural industries, the improvement of existing 
tillage, and the provision of a suitable training for 
the youth belonging to the classes of representative 
landholders or cultivators. How all this bears upon 
the present condition of agriculture in Ceylon and the 
attitude of the Government, we must leave for a 
future issue, when we shall endeavour to make sug- 
gestions calculated to benefit tbe great agricultural 
industries on which the prosperity of the island so 
entirely depends. 
