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word, to design and carry on experiments in every department of agriculture for the purpose of improving its processes and enhancing the value of its products. Students have access to the experimental grounds and all other parts of the farm under such rules as may be drawn up by the Principal and approved by the Minister. These may be said to be briefly the objects those had in view who established the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. Situation, Character of Soil, Buildings, &c. —The College itself is situated about one mile from the Town of Richmond, and thirty-eight miles from Sydney. The soil is mostly of an inferior quality, but of considerable variety. So far as I could discover, the general characteristic of the soil is that of clay with clay subsoil, or sand with sandy subsoil, some of it of a very inferior quality : where the orchard is situated struck me as being apparently nothing but sand. I think it is an old river-bed. In order to get trees to grow it is necessary to supply a good deal of the soil for the roots. In addition to what is called the College farm, they have on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, about three miles distant, another farm of 116 acres of rich alluvial soil. On this latter place there is being carried out a system of irrigation to afford opportunity for the teaching of intensive cultivation. The College has accommodation for two hundred resident students, the main building being in the form of a quadrangle. The students' quarters are two-storied, of brick. Every student has a separate room, and the whole of the buildings are lighted by electricity. Apart from the students' quarters there are large and commodious farm buildings, lecturehalls, class-rooms, and laboratories for practical work in chemistry, physics, photography, botany, entomology, bacteriology, and nature-study. Experimental Plots. —About 100 acres of the College farm are set aside and laid out in small plots, where' series of experiments and tests with roots, grasses, cereals, and manures are systematically conducted from year to year under the direction of an experienced agriculturist. The Horticultural Department includes a very fine and fully-stocked orchard, vegetablegarden, a cannery, and other accessories required to give instruction in fruitgrowing, preserving, packing, and market-gardening. The Poultry Section has several varieties of purebred fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys, and extensive experiments (one lasted over ten years) with laying fowls are carried oh in this section. Ostrich-farming is also conducted here, and I understand successfully, from a commercial point of view. The Pig Section possesses six of the best breeds of imported pigs. The boars and sows appeared to be of very high quality, and have been selected and imported from the best strains in England and America. Bacon-curing is carried on in the establishment for the instruction of the students. The Dairy Farm is stocked with a mixed breed of dairy cattle, and provision is made for the teaching of dairying in all its branches. The dairy is fully equipped with the most recently designed appliances for the treatment of milk and the manufacture of butter and cheese. The Horses. —The draught horses used on the farm are Clydesdales, Shires, Suffolk Punches, and mules; and their rearing, breeding, and management form one of the chief features in the course of study. The quality of the Clydesdale horses is unquestionable. The purebred stallion won the First and Champion in his class at the Royal Agricultural Show in England in 1912. The Clydesdale Society of Scotland selected him as a typical Clydesdale for the International Horseshow at Olympia. He cost £500. There is another stallion on the farm which cost £450, and a third £420. There are three Clydesdale mares, which cost £125 each. The students are fortunate in having such splendid models on which to form their ideas of the points of Clydesdales. These animals were all imported from Home, and must prove very valuable additions to the draught stock of the State. Other Branches. —Connected with the farm there are the carpentry, blacksmithing, saddlery, engineering, and butchering departments, in all of which students are given a systematic course of work suitable for farm requirements. There are also a flower-garden, nursery, and grass-garden, and students are given training in the collection of flowers, hedge-trees, and shrub-seeds. The raising and cultivating of seed and ornamental trees, hedges, shrubs, and flowers, and pruning, hedging, and other operations, are also taught. There is a splendid library, containing about three thousand volumes, being books relating chiefly to agriculture, which is open for the use of students and the staff at all times. In addition the College possesses a fine gymnasium, a concert-hall, recreation-grounds for football, cricket, and hockey, and four lawn-tennis courts. In the grounds there has lately been erected a splendid pavilion on stone foundations, the work of the students themselves. There are also a swimming club and a rifle range on the farm. The Rules of Admission. —Applications are received from prospective students of -fifteen years of age and upwards, but candidates are not eligible for admission until they are sixteen years old. As boys generally leave school about fourteen years of age, the Hurlstone Agricultural High School has been erected to carry on the general education of boys, with special emphasis on science and agricultural methods, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. It will provide a carefully arranged theoretical course of study in agriculture, and forms a link between the primary school and the Hawkesbury Agricultural College or the faculty of agriculture at the University. This school is under the Education Department.