H.—3sb

Unwillingness to take up an agricultural course in secondary schools is also due to the poor prospects at the end of such a course, which in turn is owing to the inability of parents to finance their boys, and also to the limited prospects boys have of acquiring a farm of their own. There seems to be a lack of appreciation in New Zealand of the vital importance of scientific agriculture to the Dominion's prosperity. What is required is the realization by the public that agriculture is the very life-blood of New Zealand. If an " agricultural conscience" can be developed the demand for scientific instruction in agriculture will follow with the consequent raising of the status of agriculture to an equality with medicine, law, and other professions. Following our suggestion for the provision of scientific agricultural training we would quote Mr. Frank Tate, Director of Education, Victoria, in his book " Some Lessons from Rural Denmark," who states, inter alia " the practical efficiency of the Danish farmer is not due directly to the general education he receives in the elementary school or in the People's High School, but rather to his practical training as a farm apprentice on a good farm and to the work of the agricultural schools." Science in Agriculture. —If New Zealand is to maintain her relative position as an agricultural country she must employ all the advantages which scientific knowledge provides. Whilst we in New Zealand have to our advantage both climate and soil, we have the disadvantage of distance from our overseas markets ; this disadvantage can be substantially overcome by the application of scientific methods of farming. It is desirable that a long view be taken regarding both the training of these boys and their ultimate establishment on the land, and it cannot be too strongly stressed that consideration must be given to the placing of boys on the land. The time has arrived for evolving a definite land-settlement scheme whereby young men who have completed a course at an agricultural college or agricultural high school and have obtained a certificate of approval from such colleges or schools, and who have worked for a period of not less than two years on a farm or station and have shown by their diligence and competency that they will prove to be efficient farmers, shall be given every encouragement and facility to make good, and ultimately become farmers themselves, instead of remaining farm workers, or seeking other avenues of employment. Such a scheme would be the means of placing on the land, a most desirable and efficient type of farmer, and would prove an incentive to boys to enter agricultural life ; thus ultimately creating a national asset which could not be too highly assessed. It may be contended that too great stress has been placed upon farming as a means of absorbing our boys upon leaving school, but, as remarked above, " agriculture is the very life-blood of New Zealand." A time there was ere England's wars began When every rod of ground maintained its man. — "Deserted Village" Any scheme of land-settlement necessarily has for its primary objective the settlement of the greatest number of individuals on a given area of land at the minimum capital expenditure on a basis which will permit of each individual settler making an income from his land, and will give him and those who are dependent or who may depend upon him in the future a reasonable standard of living under conditions which, while they may call for intelligence, industry, and thrift, do not require the settler and his family to become slaves to the land. Here we may again quote from " Some Lessons from Rural Denmark " : " All the evidence that I could gather with my own eyes, and from recent studies of capable observers, indicates that a very high degree of comfort obtains in the Danish country-side. The people work hard, but probably no harder than other agriculturists in England or Europe." The first essential to land-settlement is the possession of land suitable for the purpose, and in considering the suitability or otherwise of land for settlement, regard must be had for the class or classes of settlement (and farming) which it is proposed to pursue. Certain districts by reason of situation as regards transport, rainfall, temperature, climate, types of soil, and natural features are better suited to one class of farming than another, while certain classes of farming are more likely to prove economically sound than others. Land-use and Returns. —The possibility of price fluctuations has an important bearing on the class of farming which can be recommended to the authorities in the light of experience gained during the difficult years through which this Dominion

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