1 Ocr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 257 
the shipbuilder, the miner, the chemist, whose professions bristle with new 
ideas, the result of laborious scientific research and experiment. The wheat- 
grower, the sugar-planter, the sheep-farmer, &c., are not content to sit down 
and plod along in the old groove. They are for ever studying how to improve 
the article they produce, how to produce it at the lowest possible cost, and 
how to market it to the greatest profit. ‘Take the sugar manufacturer. 
Time was, not so many years ago,‘ when 80 lb. of brown sugar was considered 
a good yield for a ton of cane—640 lb. of sugar of poor quality to 8 tons of 
cane! Think of it! Compare the returns of the present day from the same 
weight of cane, when 2,000 lb. of sugar are obtained instead of 640 Ib. 
How has this come about? It is the result of the combined labours of the 
engineer, of the chemist, and of the agricultural implement maker. Look across 
the water to America with its enormous maize production. How does maize 
pay the American farmer? Ask the Chicago pork-packers. In the good old 
days street sweepings were thrown away; the offal of slaughtered beasts was 
treated in like manner. ‘To-day science has shown how these may be utilised 
by the farmer. Be 
Few farmers in this country are contented with anything but the most 
up-to-date implements. They live perhaps far from any blacksmith or imple- 
ment maker. How are repairs to be effected? How are the horses to be 
shod when no blacksmith is to be found within 100 miles of the farm? We 
might go on to enumerate many other disabilities under which the farmer in a 
new country labours; but these will readily suggest themselves to the 
intelligent reader. 
We come then to the question: How is a youth who earnestly wishes to 
become a farmer, and a successful one, tv learn to cope with these disabilities? 
The reply is: By the help of Agricultural Colleges. ‘To attain success, he 
must be self-reliant—he must not depend upon outside assistance. And here is 
just where the great value of the agricultural training establishment is seen. 
Here, the students undergo a course of training which will enable them 
to deal with almost every mechanical difficulty they are sure to encounter in 
after life. They are instructed not only in tilling the soil but in all sorts of 
mechanical work, from mending a broken trace to driving, tending, and repair- 
ing an engine. ‘This mechanical portion of the course is most valuable to 
them. All sorts of damage occur to machinery, implements, wagons, build- 
ings, &c., and these are all repaired on the spot by skilled mechanics, assisted 
by a class of students to whom, eventually, much of the work is entrusted. 
The sinking of wells, erection of windmills, laying down irrigation plants, 
building houses, stockyards, piggeries, poultry-yards, erecting fences, making 
gates, building silos, and many other necessary works are being continually 
carried out for their instruction. Much hard labour is attached to these works. 
The pick and shovel are in constant requisition for road-making. Few would 
associate the latter with agriculture, but all these things tend to one end—the 
training of the farmer. In the school, the study of mechanical drawing is 
taught. Architects and builders are not found in the sparsely settled agricul- 
tural districts. he college-trained student will not need them. He has been 
taught to draw his own plans, to make out his own specifications, and to erect 
his own buildings. 
Next take the instruction given in dealing with horses. 'The student after 
a few days’ instruction under a good ploughman will confidently take the horses 
and plough, and although he will at first make poor work, yet if he is an apt 
pupil he will soon require little supervision. He next learns how to treat his 
team, how to spare them, how to feed them, how to bed them down and groom 
them. ‘his is not agriculture, but without this knowledge his agriculture will 
be of a poor kind. He is also taught how to deal with simple ailments of the 
yarious kinds of animals on the farm, and learns thus to become, to a certain 
extent, independent of the vet. So with the dairy cattle. Heis taught how to 
tell the best breeds for milking or for beef purposes. In these evil times of 
tick fever and tuberculosis, all the intelligent students at a college become 
