466 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Noy., 1901. 
principal crops of France and of the locality; diseases of plants, parasites; 
legumes, fruits, flowers ; training and pruning fruit trees; care of domestic 
animals ; bee culture. 
About 3,400 of the rural primary schools have gardens attached to them. 
There are 160 superior primary schools, in which more than 15,000 pupils 
receive instruction in agriculture. 
Official circulars have been issued by the Ministry of Agriculture suggest- 
ing the ideas and purposes involved in the agricultural instruction to be given. 
These direct that the instruction shall be addressed less to the memory than to 
the intelligence of the child. It should be based on the observations of facts 
in country life and on simple experiments with familiar objects, and designed 
to prove the scientific fundamental ideas of the most important agricultural 
operations. The children’should learn above all things else the reasons for the 
operations rather than the manner of performing them. Still Jess should they 
be compelled to learn a list of definitions, precepts, or agricultural recipes. 
The aim of the elementary instruction is to give the greatest number of 
country children that degree of elementary knowledge which is essential to 
enable them to read a modern book on agriculture or attend an agricultural 
meeting with profit; to inspire them with a love of country life so that they may 
prefer it to that of towns and factories; and to inculcate the truth that agri- 
culture, besides being the most independent of all occupations, is also more 
remunerative than many others for industrious, intelligent, and well-instructed 
farmers. 
In order to supply teachers with an adequate knowledge of the principles 
of agriculture, a course of agriculture was established in all the normal schools 
for men. It was not intended that the normal schools should be turned into 
agronomic institutes, but that agriculture should be given an honourable 
place in the school curriculum. It was desired to give the graduates of such 
schools an exact knowledge of the soil, the means of improving it, the methods 
of cultivation, and the general management of farms, gardens, and 
stables: According to the Minister for Education, it is sufficient if teachers 
in the elementary schools teach simply the elements of agriculture, give wise 
counsel in the neighbourhood, and, if necessary, combat effectually routine and 
prejudice. To accomplish this, the instruction given by the teacher should be 
accurate and clear. The ideas of the pupils should be rectified by visits to the 
best farms, by some laboratory work, and by frequent tests in the garden or 
demonstration field of the school. The object of the course in the normal 
schools is not to teach the business of farming, but to study the phenomena of 
life and the condition of its development, to inspire a love for the country, 
and to develop the natural tendencies of children to become interested in . 
flowers, birds, &c. 
In the normal school programme for teachers, two hours a week are 
devoted to agriculture, zootechny, and rural economy in the second year of the 
course, as follows :— 
1. Vegetable Growing.—Study of the soil; the means of modifying its 
chemical composition and physical properties by fertilisers; irrigation ; 
drainage ; cultivation ; rotation of crops and special crops, such as 
cereals, legumes, &c. 
2. Zootechny.—Feeding of horses, cows, sheep, and swine. 
3. Rural Economy.—Property in land; methods of exploitation and 
capital required ; bookkeeping. 
In the third year of the normal course one hour a week is devoted to fruit 
tree and yegetable growing, as follows:—General ideas of culture ; planting 
and preparing the soil; work in the orchard and garden. It is expected that 
the professors will emphasise the methods and products of the localities in 
which the schools are located. 
It was difficult in the beginning—and the difficulty has lasted well up to 
the present time—to initiate the teachers into the spirit of the new teaching in 
I 
