The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-01
EXPERIMENT FARMS.

I
 couragement of agriculture, especially
 by the diffusion of practical knowledge, | is shown in the fact that iil most of the 1 colonies a department of agriculture has been established, the official head ot
 which is a member of the colonial min | istry. In New South Wales the neces- | sity for providing the means Of techni- 1 cal agricultural education, and estab- | fishing a college and model farms In Va-
 rious parts of the colony, became fully
 recognized, and site suitable for a
 central establishment was selected at
 Ham Common, near the town of Rich mond, in the Hawkesbury district,
 about thirty-nine miles from Sydney, where an area of about four thousand l acres was resumed for the purpose. | The buildings and furnishings of the college and farm, now in their seventh 1 year of existence, were completed Tn
 January, 1896, and officially opened on l the 14th of April of the same year. Ac- commodation Is provided for ninety-six | resident students, and during 1898 there was full roll, Theoretical as well @as
 practical instruction is imparted by eX-
 perts in every branch of agriculture, ! and experimental work Is carried on with cereal and other crops. fertilizers are tested, analyses of soils are made,
 and the arts of dishorning and spaying
 cattle, with other veterinary surgical
 practices are taught. The live stock at
 ta ached to the farm and college comprise forty-slx horses, fifty seven bullacks one hundred and fifty-one head of dai- " cattle, one hundred and forty pigs
 and one hundred and thirty sheep. The
 operations include the cultivation of
 wheat for grain and hay, maize for
 grain and silage, barley for grain and
 fodder, oats for grain and hay; lucerne,
 Hungarian millet, rape, grapes for
 fruit and wine, oranges, various kinds
 of fruit, potatoes, turnips, mangold-
 wurzel, tobacco, beans and peas, pump
 kins, melons, different kinds of vegeta-
 bles, etc. There Is an orchard, thirty
 acres in extent, and vineyard ten
 acres in extent, and the cultivation of
 plants for the expression of scent has
 also been begun. Besides the practice
 of general dairy-farming work, in
 struction Is imparted in cheese-making,
 also in the management and breeding of poultry, in the rearing of bees and the preparation of honey for the market, in the killing and dressing of sheep, in the carpenters and the blacksnith's arts
 in the construction of fences, and in va- rious mechanical trades.
 The are also experimental farms at Bomen, three hundred and four miles from Sydney, in the Murrumbidgee dis trict, and at Wollongbar, three hundred and slxtysix miles from Sidney, in the Richmond river district. The former Is near the town of Wagga Wagga, and embraces an area of 2460 acres, of which twelve hundred acres are in cul- uvation, one thousand acres being de- voted to growing cereals, of which five hundred acres are for seed wheat, the remainder being utilized for oaten hay and mating barley; eighty-fve acres to fruit trees and grape vines; and eighty acres to forage plants, such as maize, sorghum, millet, barley, rye, oats, cow pea, roots, grasses, etc.; while eight acres are under olive trees the re- mainng portion being taken up by irri- gation plots, nursery and experimental plots, Quarters have been provided for twenty-five students, and there are also cottages for the manager and workmen; likewise barns, hay-shed and stables, There is no natural water supply, but dams of six, ten and forty thousand yards capacity have been excayated, and are used for supplying water to the irrigation plots. Some thousands of farmers have visited the farm since its establishment. Preparations are being made for dairying and pig-raistng on a large scale, and also for carrying out feeding trials with cattle. sheep, etc.
 At the Wolongbar farm experiments have been made with sugar canes ob- tained from New Guinea, sugar cultiva- tion being a staple industry on the Clarence Richmond and other northern l rivers. Experiments with grasses for the grazing of dairy cattle have been carried on, and steps taken to assist the dairying industry, which Is greatly on the increase In the northern parts of the colony. Other trials are being made | with citrus fruits, pineapples, bananas and various other tropical and semi tropical fruits. The total area of the | farm Is two hundred and sixty-three i acres of which twenty-e eight acres con- 'i5t VI uiNHdlQ CIOp5 OI olilCI6Ht NuIlC- .ies of sown grasses; while one hundred and thirty three acres are cleared or cleared, and seventy-two acres are standing scrub.
 The experimental farm at Bathurst, ,ne hundred and forty-five miles from Sydney, is largely devoted to the cross of sheep, irrigation, fruit growing cereal culture and general mixed farming. The area of the farm is i've hundred and ninety-six acres, to which leased acres of one hundred and 'eventy-six acres have been added. The area under cultivation is three h hundred and seventy acres, the crops wheat, oats, rye, barley, mill ct (mangold-wurzel, etc.), pumpkins, potatoes onions tomatoes hay, green odder, cow-pea, miscellaneous experi- mental crops, irrigation crops (uoerne. etc.), and fruits There are me thousand sheep and lambs on the arm, and nine students have been en- oled. Another farm is situate at Cool
 bah, in the dry country, about four sundred and twenty-four miles from 'ydney where there are about two
 undred acres in cultivation, trials be- ng systematically made with various inds of wheat, maize, sorghum, cow ea, grasses folders and so on. There , also trnya1ipo instructor ypbosa ,