TOWARD BETTER FARMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18678, 7 April 1924, Page 8

TOWARD BETTER FARMING.

The Department of Agriculture, through the activities of its field instruction branch, is meeting with gratifying sifccess in ifs organisation of schools for farmers. Various Education Boards in the .Dominion have undertaken something of the kind on a small scale from time to time. Their agricultural instructors have gathered groups of farmers in limited localities for lectures and demonstrations. These have been valuable, but too sporadic to have any very definite result. The experiment tried by the Auckland Education Board at Ruakura in 1919 was more ambitious. It attracted farmers from the* wide scope of the provincial district, and proved that the supply of instruction was awaited by a demand for it. But it was inevitable that this adult education in farming should pass from the boards' control to that of the Department of Agriculture; and this transfer, effected in 1921, opened the way for a comprehensive scheme. No fewer than seven schools are in contemplation for this year, the centres extending from North Auckland to Dunedin, and those arranged for Dargavflle and Ruakura in June and July are attracting farmers in large numbers. This bringing of scientific agriculture into the closest possible touch with actual farming is full of promise. Even the good methods of approved farming in earlier days should give way to the better methods of to-day, and these again to the still better methods of ; to-morrow. Expert knowledge /must have a practical welcome if farming is to maintain its maximum value for the Dominion. By and by there will be a complete scheme of instruction in agriculture from the primary school to the university. Already that instruction has a useful place in the schools; the university phase, including research, has as yet no adequate attention. In this situation, the farm schools will fulfil a highly valuable function. Pending the full development of the university arrangements, they will provide adult instruction, and even after that development has , come they may find a very serviceable place in a, completed scheme*