AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2756, 10 March 1910, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION.

SOUTH AFRIOA AND NEW SOUTH WALES.

There arrived in Sydney towards the end oh last month, Mr. It. D. Watt, the first Professor in ’Agriculture who is to institute the new school of agriculture at the Sydney University, He-re-signed his position in the Transvaal Agricultural Department in order to take the Sydney ]xist. The new-Professor of Agriculture is a young, vigorous, strongly-made man of 2S. He worked as- a farmer in Scotland before over lie began his long theoretical and scientific training at Glasgow University. He took his B.Sc. there, and afterwards, in order to give himself a general culture, his M.A. In the examination of the two great agricultural societies in England and Scotland he won honors and the gold medal, and the- Carnegie Trust then gave him a research scholarship, with which he wont to Hoth-amsted —the oldest agricultural research station in the world, lie there did some original woi'k in ■dairying and plant physiology, and whilst there received the appoinment of assistant chemist to the Agricultural Department ol th-c Transvaal. He worked at Pretoria for two years- and eight months, by which time he was chief chemist to the department. It is, therefore, not a theorist or mere scientist, but an uxprienced, practical man, with a distinguished education, ’that h::s conic to set the new school on its footing.

•'I do not see why if a four-year course is arrange’d, as I hope it will be, the School of Agriculture in Sydney University should bo second to any in the world. 1 should like to have one year’s practical work made essential, and that year’s experience should be before the course, not after it. You can do something with a man who has had a year’s practical knowledge of the laud. Farmers’ sens who are really bent upon taking up this work arc the right sort of material. I should, hope that some of the squatters’ sons, too, who attend the University, would take their degree in this branch instead of some other. We shall probably deal to some extent with stcekraising as well a.o with agriculture. ••The school is not a Department of Agriculture, like the one I have just left. Our business will be rather to train the men who will be teachers and; who will disseminate the science of agriculture through the State—through what medium I do not, of course know at present- —but probably the secondary and technical schools, and, perhaps, the elementary schools. Hie school will also train the agricultural experts, such as those of the department. "• “New South Wales has gone up one step further than the other States in establishing this school. There are agricultural departments in the other States. The first year’s work in the agricultural course will be the same as in the' ordinary scientific course —preliminary science—botany, biology, and so on. The particular work of the Agricultural School will, therefore, probably not begin for a year. My idea is that it should extend over the second, third, and fourth years. It will consist of the sciences, such a botany and entomology, applied to agriculture. I hope to make the course a thorough one. “Before I start work 1 mean to visit all the States. Until I know something of the States I would rather not express any opinion as to the condition of agriculture there. 1 think they arc probably to some extent familiar to the conditions in South Africa, but not altogether' so. “The Agricultural Department iri the Transvaal is only eight years old, but it lias done admirable work. It was founded by the British after the war —by Lord Milner. It did good work from the first; but for sonic, years the Dutch farmers were suspicions of itas they were of tilings British. It was no-t- until General Botha .came into power three years later that the Boers were converted to the department. Botha became struck with the idea of it, and he made it his business to go about amongst tilie Boer farmers himself and tell them of it. It was Tartly this ami partly tho evidence of their eyes that converted them. “There was practically nothing but stockraisLng before the department was established. Within eigtit years agriculture had a hold and is spreading. The locusts (I do not know if they are the same a.s your grasshopper, but i think th— must bo of the same nature) have practically disappeared. They have been dealt with by keeping track of the swarms, and by spraying the grass in front of them —perhaps a strip 1.00 yards wide—with poison. The poison kills the grass temporarily, and is dangerous to stock for a certain time, but the stock arc kept off it. All tho

disuses loft after the war have been dealt with, Ilinderxiest has been completely wiped out, and contagious pleuro-jmeumonia., Foot and mouth never get a verv strong hold. It lias been exterminated. Most of the diseases there arc carried by tick or mosquito, and we have investigated these and are dealing with them. liedwater or East Coast fever has been got rid of by fenc. ing infected areas, and restricting stock movements and occasionally by wholesale slaughter. It only exists in a few corners now. “My experience has led me to believe, that there is no disease of this kind that cannot be got rid of if it is sufficiently studied. “In the British Isles it is Ireland that has benefited to the __ greatest extent by the scientific treatment of agriculture. A great deal of money is available there, and there is no doubt that it is having its effects. There is a lecturer in every county. So there will be in "Scotland before long, and eventually in England. ‘‘The best school in the British Isles is now at Cambridge. They are doing a. good deal in the way of breeding new varieties of wheat. They may have been laughed at to start with, but the laugh will be the other way soon.”