6 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1898. 
have already the advantage of instruction from ong, of the best agricultural 
chemists in the colonies. It lacks, however, dairy instruction. The dairy herd 
at present at the College is composed of first-class well-chosen breeds of dairy 
cattle ; but instruction in this important branch of the agricultural industry 
is not yet available, although a few weeks will see this study added to the 
curriculum. Now we need not travel far in any of the eastern colonies to see 
that dairying is taking a firm hold of the agricultural population. All over 
Queensland, south of Rockhampton, farmers are going in more and more for 
dairying. At the Tweed River, sugar is rapidly being displaced by the same 
industry, and there is money in it. The work of our travelling dairies has 
borne, and is bearing, fruit more than ever. The instruction given by our 
dairy experts to the farmers in many parts of the colony has fallen upon 
attentive ears, and as a consequence this industry is progressing at a marvellous 
rate. Men say, ‘If sugar fails, butter and cheese, bacon and hams, will fill 
the gap.” 
‘ Now, although our farmers have gained wisdom by the instruction named, 
their sons require more continued instruction, and this they expect to get by 
attending the Southern Colleges. Those Colleges, moreover, are not of late 
growth. They are firmly established, and are replete with every modern 
contrivance for imparting complete agricultural instruction. Like our own 
College, their instructors are many and are highly efficient, but some subjects 
they can only impart theoretically, whilst our College can impart them 
practically to a great extent. 
In all that regards the cultivation of cereals, fodder plants, fruits, and 
vegetables of temperate climates, their teaching is unlikely to be surpassed. 
But apart from, or rather in conjunction with these, the Queensland College, 
Nurseries, and Experiment Farms can impart practical instruction in tropical 
agriculture which would be valueless in the South, but priceless here. As to the 
general principles of agricultural instruction, these can be given as well at the 
Wagga, Hawkesbury, or Gatton Colleges, the Westbrook, Hermitage, or 
Kamerunga or Mackay Experiment Farms and Nurseries, as in Manitoba or 
Jamaica. Theory combined with actual practice is what is wanted in these 
colonies, and we see only a commendable spirit of reciprocity in this desire of 
our boys to study in New South Wales, and of the Southern lads to take a 
course of instruction in Queensland. 
