A school of Agriculture has been in operation at Truro, Nova Scotia, associated with an experimental station, for ten or twelve years past, and in the same Province a school of Horticulture has been in operation for the past three or four years, at Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Tuition is free in both schools. In New Brunswick a Government Training farm has been opened at Penobsquis, near Sussex. Tuition is free.

2. Other Organisations. Other agencies which also render valuable help in this connection are Dairy Schools, Travelling Dairies, Farmers' Institutes, Livestock and Dairy Associations, Fruit Growers' Associations (associated, in Ontario, with a number of Fruit Experiment Stations), Poultry Associations, and Agricultural and Horticultural Societies. These are all maintained or assisted by the several Provinces by annual grants, and there are many of such organisations in every Province. The members connected with these associations, &c., meet from time to time. to discuss matters relating to the branches of agriculture they represent, and the more important papers read at such meetings are published by the Provincial Governments and distributed, free of charge, to farmers who desire to receive them.

DOMINION AIDS TO AGRICULTURE.

The progress of agriculture in Canada has been greatly stimulated by the organisation and maintenance of experimental farms by the Dominion Government. Five of these farms have been established in different parts of the Dominion. This work was begun in 1887, the institutes being so located as to render efficient help to the farmers in the more thickly settled districts, and at the same time to cover the most varied climatic and other conditions which influence agriculture in this country. The Central Experimental Farm is situated at Ottawa, near the boundary line between Ontario and Quebec, where it serves as an aid to agriculture in these two important Provinces. A site for one of the four branch experimental farms was chosen at Nappan, Nova Scotia, near the boundary between that Province and New Brunswick, where it serves the purposes of the three Maritime Provinces. A second branch farm has been established at Brandon, in the central portion of Manitoba; a third at Indian Head, a town in Assiniboia, one of the Northwest Territories; and a fourth at Agassiz, in the coast climate of British Columbia.

At all these farms experiments are conducted to gain information as to the best methods of preparing the land for crop and of maintaining its fertility, the most useful and profitable crops to grow, and how the various crops grown can be disposed of to the greatest advantage. To this end experiments are conducted in the feeding of cattle, sheep, and swine for flesh, the feeding of cows for the production of milk, butter, and cheese, and of poultry both for flesh and eggs. Experiments are also conducted to test the merits of new or untried varieties of cereals and other field crops, of grasses, forage plants, fruits, vegetables, plants, and trees and samples, particularly of the

most promising cereals, are distributed freely among farmers for trial, so that such as promise to be most profitable may be rapidly brought into general cultivation. New varieties of cereals and fruits are also produced by cross fertilising and

selection.

At the Central Experimental Farm there is a scientific staff engaged in solving such problems as may arise in connection with the chemistry of agriculture, the diseases to which cultivated plants and trees are subject, the ravages of insect pests, and the spread of noxious weeds. Experiments are also conducted in the planting of trees for timber and shelter, and in the testing of ornamental trees, shrubs, and plants.

An annual report is published containing particulars of the work done at each farm, and this report is sent free of charge to every farmer in the Dominion who asks for it. The annual edition now required to meet the demand is 60,000. Occasional bulletins on special subjects of immediate importance are also issued from time to time as required. A large correspondence is conducted with farmers in all parts of the Dominion, who are encouraged to ask advice and information from the experimental farms, in reference to all questions affecting their calling. Farmers are also invited to visit the various farms and inspect the work in progress. The officers attend many of the more important gatherings of farmers in different parts of Canada, at which opportunities are afforded of giving fuller information regarding the work conducted and the results achieved from year to year.

No pupils are received at any of these Federal Government agricultural stations for training in experimental work.

NOTE ON THE

MACDONALD MANUAL TRAINING

FUND FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANUAL
AND PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY
SCHOOLS IN CANADA.

One of the most remarkable features of the educational movement which is stirring the world at the present time is the growing sense of the importance of Manual and Practical Instruction, especially in primary schools. There is a widespread feeling that it is a mistake to confine education too closely to the study of books. The training of hand and eye in early childhood is alike of educational and of practical benefit. It cultivates the faculty of observation; it strengthens and enlarges the powers of exact expression; it corrects a tendency to onesided intellectual development; it makes school life more interesting; it discloses aptitudes and interests which school teaching in the past has too often stunted or ignored; it provides a basis for later technical education, and it checks the growth of a foolish contempt for manual labour. All over the world different forms of manual and practical training are receiving increased recognition as indispensable elements in liberal education. Unfortunately," to quote the Report of the Committee of Council on Education for England and Wales, 1897-8, "a mechanical form of bookish instruction is the cheapest kind of teaching. It calls for the least thought on the part of the teacher, and it requires the smallest outlay of funds or trouble on the necessary apparatus. Consequently it tends to prevail in inferior schools, staffed by inferior teachers. Of all kinds of education it is the least fruitful of permanent good."

Throughout the British Empire the feeling in favour of manual and practical instruction has been strengthened and guided by the valuable report of the Commission on Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools under the Board of National Education in Ireland. This report, published in 1898,* together with the volumes of evidence and appendices,+ has evidently made a deep impression on the minds of teachers and educational authorities in many different parts of the Empire. Traces of its influence and quotations from its recommendations crop up in educational memoranda published in almost all the colonies. The Commissioners based their recommendations in

* Cd. 8923, 7 d.

+First Report, with Evidence, Cd. 8383, 104d.; second volume of Evidence, 1897, Cd. 8532, 2s. 3d.; third volume of Evidence, 1897, Cd. 8619, 1s. 4d.; fourth volume of Evidence, 1898, Cd. 8924, 3s. 7d. Appendix containing Evidence, 1899, Cd. 9512, 5s. 7d.; Appendices (various documents and reports), 1898, Cd. 8925, 4s. 10 d.

favour of introducing manual and practical instruction into the curricula of primary schools on educational reasons, on grounds of practical experience, and for reasons of practical utility. They held it to be important "that children should be taught, not merely to take in knowledge from books, but to observe with intelligence the material world around them; that they should be trained in habits of correct reasoning on the facts observed: and that they should, even at school, acquire some skill in the use of hand and eye to execute the conceptions of the brain.” Such training the Commissioners regarded as " valuable to all, but especially valuable to those whose lives are to be mainly devoted to industrial arts and occupations." And, in the course of their inquiries, they had found that the introduction of manual training had contributed greatly to stimulate the intelligence of the pupils, to increase their interest in school life, and to make school life generally brighter and more attractive. "The development of Manual and Practical Education," wrote the Commissioners in their closing paragraphs, "will not disturb what is good in the present system, but only supply what is lacking. It will quicken the intelligence of the children, brighten the tone of school life, and make school work generally more interesting and attractive. The children will be

taught not by means of books only, but also by the more simple and effective agency of things; they will be trained in the skilful use of all their faculties; and they will be better prepared for their work in life, which, for the great bulk of them, must consist mainly of manual occupations."

In a pamphlet on Manual Training in Public Schools,* Mr. James W. Robertson, Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairying for the Dominion of Canada, strongly emphasises the importance of manual training as a corrective to what he calls "the spirit of bare scholasticism," and announces an offer made by Sir William C. Macdonald, of Montreal," to pay for the equipment required for educational manual training in one place in every province of the Dominion; and also to meet the expenses of qualified teachers, and of maintenance for three years in all those places." Sir William offered to equip and maintain for three years in Ottawa as many centres as might be required to. give all the boys (about 1,000) between the ages of 9 and 14 in the public schools an opportunity to receive this training. "It is hoped," writes Mr. Robertson," that after a year or two an equally valuable course of practical instruction suited for girls of the same age may somehow be provided; and doubtless nature studies' will be given a proper place in rural schools. Sir William has authorised me to make a similar offer to the school authorities of Brockville, Ont.; of Charlottetown and

* Ottawa, E. J. Reynolds, Sparks Street, 1899.

+ Sir William C. Macdonald, who is a native of Prince Edward Island, but has for over 40 years been resident in Montreal, is distinguished by his zeal for the advancement of education in Canada, and for his munificent gifts, exceeding two-and-a-half million dollars, to McGill University. Montreal.