THE 
AGRK^ULTUKAL mAGAZIOG, 
COLOMBO. 
Added as a Siivplement Monthly to the " TBOPICAL AGRICULTURIST;' 
The following pages include the Contents of the Agricultural Magazine for 
February ; — 
Vol. XIL] 
FEBRUARY, 1901. 
[No. 8. 
THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE IN 
RURAL SCHOOLS. 
I 
jHILST we have nothing but praise 
for the excellent system of State 
school education throughout the 
colony, whilst we respect and ap- 
preciate at their full value the 
State school teachers, and the 
splendid work they have done and are continuing to 
do in the cities and townships throughout this great 
territory of Queensland, we believe we are justified 
in saying that there is still one channel through 
which the stream of instruction has not yet 
flowed — a channel which, if once filled and set 
flowing, will carry the beneficent stream through- 
out the land, eventually bringing wealth, health, 
and rural comfort to thousands of homes. This so 
long neglected channel is Agricultural Education. 
Let us at once say that we do not advocate a 
systematic course of instruction in the science of 
agriculture in the State schools. In the nature 
of things such a course would be impossible — 
first, because the time spent at the schools by 
children in the rural districts is of short average 
duration, hence allowing an all too brief period 
for mastering the three R's and a certain 
amount of geography, history, &c.; secondly, 
because the teachers were never expected to add 
agricultural subjects to the ordinary school 
curriculum, and hence went through no course of 
preparation, nor were they required to pass any 
examination in agriculture. We may further 
point out that whatever pleasure the teachers may 
personally derive from the cultivation of a piece of 
land in their spare and holiday times, or from the 
rearing of poultry and cattle, yet teachers are not 
farmers. The long course of arduous study and 
training gone through by them during their pupil- 
teachership, and whilst passing through the 
various grades to the higher classes, necessarily 
left them no time to study agriculture in a prac- 
tical manner. Instruction of a comprehensive 
nature in the branch of education can therefore 
only be given in an Agricultural College, or ia 
Dairy Schools, where all the instructors are 
specialists in their own particular branch of the 
various industries coming under the head of 
" agriculture. ' 
But, these premises being conceded, we hold 
that it is quite within the range of possibility to 
render the instruction imparted in the schools 
under notice more consonant with the environment 
of the pupils than is now the case. It can be 
shown that without altering the curriculum in 
any way, without adding one single fresh burden 
to the teachers or pupils, that carriculum can be so 
handled as to attain the desired end in a manner 
not only not burdensome, but rather enjoyable to 
teachers and taught. 
What is one of the most important duties of the 
teacher ? Is it not to train the faculties of obser- 
vation and research in the child. And how can 
this be better accomplished than by encouraging 
the spirit of inquiry — the curiosity, we may call 
it, so natural to every child ? 
More particularly should children be encouraged 
to observe the phenomena of Nature, and the 
results of her operations in the ordinary events of 
