University Agricultural Training

“The need of relating our present school system more closely to agricultural life has been brought very forcibly of late years to the attention of the Provincial (Ontario) Government, and various steps in that direction have been taken, with greater or less timidity. Now, at the suggestion of the Department of Education, and for the purpose of training High School teachers in agriculture, it is proposed by Toronto, McMaster and Queen’s Universities that a special course in agriculture be introduced, the student to spend the first two years upon the regular University course, but the last two to be taken up at Guelph, after which the successful student would be able to write B. S. A. after his name, and would be competent to teach agriculture in Ontario’s High Schools. The proposal is well meant, but ‘The Farmers Advocate’ contends that it begins at the wrong end, and that at the most we could only hope to turn out agricultural theorists, whose practical knowledge of farming would be so limited as to give them very scanty qualifications as teachers. The editor of ‘The Farmer’s Advocate’ urges that a practical knowledge of farming is an absolute necessity for one who would pose as an expert, and he proposes, in lieu of the new plan, that our present Agricultural College be enlarged to meet the new demand. In view of all the facts of the case, and considering that our University classes are now altogether too crowded for proper efficiency, the suggestion of ‘The Farmer’s Advocate’ deserves the serious attention of the Government.”

- The Christian Guardian