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Agricultural Research and Education
Early recognition was secured by the Agricultural Department of the need for a systematic investigation of the numerous local problems of arable farming and stock husbandry, the practical outcome of which was the establishment of a system of Experimental Farms in different parts of the country for the conduct of field and laboratory research. Clearly defined natural areas, due to a wide range of climate and elevation, are typically represented by the different Government Stations, and the applicability of experimental results is consequently extensive.
At the Central Experimental Farm, Cedara, established in 1902, problems of mixed farming, as practised in the Midlands and Northern Districts of Natal, receive attention. Exhaustive experiments in the cultivation of the staple cereal crops have been conducted for a period of eight years, and simultaneously an effort has been made to demonstrate a profitable system of stock-breeding and management, with direct reference to a dry winter season when the natural pasture affords little support. An extensive experimental orchard and a large forest nursery are included in the general scheme at this centre, and the farm is fully equipped with chemical and biological laboratories, dairies, workshops and modern power machinery.
The many aspects of tropical agriculture, including the cultivation of sugar-cane, tea, coffee, fruit, rubber, fibre, oil and starch crops, are exhaustively studied by means of comparative experiments at the Winkle Spruit, Stanger and Empangeni stations on the coasts of Natal and Zululand. At Weenen a distinct system of extensive cultivation under irrigation is exemplified on the basis of lucerne, wheat, oats, barley, tobacco, fruit and peas. A digest and interpretation of the results obtained during the past eight years from all experimental undertakings is being published as a series of volumes under title " Cedara Memoirs," the first of which dealing with the " Cereal Crops in South Africa," is now obtainable from the Superintendent of Printing. Colonial Office, Maritzburg. at a cost of 10s. 6d.
The School of Agriculture and Forestry, originally organised as a supplementary feature to the Experimental Farms, is rapidly assuming a position of the first importance among the undertakings of the Division. A handsome residential college was completed at Cedara in 1906. since which year repeated provision of additional accommodation has been necessary to meet a demand for the training offered in the practice and theory of local agriculture and forestry. The establishment of branch schools at Weenen and Winkle Spruit has permitted the organisation of a curriculum calculated to qualify students for remunerative positions in any part of South Africa, a result reflected by appointments for graduates in all our neighbouring Provinces. The course, which at present extends over two years, embraces at Cedara a training in agriculture, horse-breeding, dairy, sheep, and poultry farming, horticulture, forestry, farm-engineering, farming, farm-building and carpentry : while at Weenen and Winkle Spruit practical training is given in irrigation, farming, and tropical agriculture respectively.
The affiliation of the school to the Maritzburg University College, coupled with the grant of a chair in Agriculture to the Principal, opens a prospect of an agricultural degree to students capable of qualifying for this distinction. In addition to the normal residential course, special vacation classes are held during the month of July for schoolmasters from Government Primary Schools. It is hoped that by such means nature study may be incorporated in the elementary syllabus as an introduction to a subsequent study of scientific agriculture. The July course is also open to professional farmers who may be unable to take up the normal residential course.
At the Oblange Industrial School for Natives arrangements have been made for a special training in agriculture, and this undertaking is periodically supervised by officers of the