The Forge

From here we passed to the workshops. On arriving at the shoeing forge I found students in the act of shoeing, with the shoes they had just made, two noble specimens of the Suffolk Punch. Here at once, I was brought face to face with the practical results of the College training. Entering a door on the left, I passed into the blacksmiths shop, and found several students busily at work, some making horseshoes, some making the iron. supports of garden chairs, some making iron rails, and others, again, fashioning various details connected with waggon-making. A few steps further on and we were in the carpenters shop. Here I noticed in particular a student putting the finishing touch to an admirably made out-door bench - the last, I gathered, of a series of six. Another student was completing a pair of shafts, and a third a field-gate. How few, indeed, of those who emigrate to the distant portions of our empire are able to produce one of these necessaries! Soon after leaving the carpenters shop I passed that in which the harness-mending is carried on. There are seventy or eighty horses on the farms, and the whole of their harness is kept in repair on the premises. A short walk along the shady lane brought me to the dairy - a large, red-brick building, where dairy operations on a large scale are conducted. I noticed the variety of implements in use, and Mr. Johnson explained that these represented the purpose he had in view.

"If," said he, "I were a private farmer, I should test all these machines, and, having come to the conclusion which would best serve my purpose, I should use that one alone. But you must remember that this is an educational establishment, and that the students may be called upon to use any one of these different machines. This is a working dairy, but it is a dairy school as well."

From 150 to 250 lbs. of butter are made every week in the dairy, and in its store-room I saw a large number of cheeses which, under instruction, the students had also made. Connected with the dairy there are about fifty cows of various breeds. Many of the students learn to milk well, and this, it need hardly be pointed out, is very desirable.

In the third number of Colonia, the Colonial College Magazine, an old student, in a letter dated from Queensland, says: - " Tell Mr. So-and-So that the milking I learnt from him is very useful. It is reckoned that only about 1 per cent. of "new chums" who come out here are able to milk."

A little way beyond the dairy I came to the fowl-houses with their large wire runs. These are well-stocked. Passing from this spot I gained an eminence from which there is a beautiful view of Hollesley Bay, with Orford Ness lying dim in the north-east, and the old martello towers - built in the days of the Bonaparte scare - looming on the low shore southward. Inland there runs the blue-green line of pine trees, which divide the rich lands of the Colonial College from the heathery moors that lie beyond, and over which I had but lately crossed. Near by, quietly, but none the less busily, feeding in a field of turnips was a large flock of several hundred sheep. The majority had those black faces and black legs of which the East Anglian is so justly proud; but here also, as everywhere, there were those other varieties necessary for educational purposes. Wending our way back, we passed a threshing machine in full work with the usual posse of eager students around; and, turning to the right, entered the Experimental Gardens attached to the College. The first thing which struck me was the attention devoted to forestry - a knowledge of which is most needful in those distant countries whose flora is yet but imperfectly known, and in whose forests there may be, indeed there are, fortunes awaiting those who have any acquaintance with practical agriculture and woodcraft.

Let me sketch in brief outline an account of how such forestry is presented to the students here. First of all I came across a young nursery, containing some 200 different kinds of trees, and which it is the duty of those students who have any liking for the subject to tend and observe. Later on I came across the practical result of the interest inspired by the nursery. Across a shallow stream there lay a huge ash tree. All the top wood had been cut off in suit-able lengths, and lay ready for being turned into faggots. The vast limbs which had cast long shadows for I do not know how many years across the neighbouring ground, had all been cut into proper lengths, and lay ready for lumbering up. The fallen tree, in fact, had been prepared for removal, and was ready for the workshops. "This,^" said my companion, "is another specimen of the results which we get. This tree was blown down in one of the recent gales, and three or four of our ardent young spirits begged me to allow them to prepare it entirely by themselves. I assented with pleasure, and now you see before you each part of the tree properly cut ready for various uses, and practically done as well as if an experienced woodman had been at work."

To return to the gardens. After passing a good collection (in early growth) of all the principal conifers which are likely to be met with in other countries, I came to the students own gardens. These, of course, vary in size - in proportion to the interest which may be taken in horticulture. One may have six or eight rods of land, while another, who has other "fish to fry," contents himself with a smaller plot. We passed a bed with about 500 rose trees, and, noticing that they had all been recently budded, I remarked how important a knowledge of budding is in those countries where fruit culture is the main industry, and was very pleased to hear that all those trees had been budded by the students, under the direction of the very intelligent head gardener. A short distance from the experimental gardens were the fruit gardens, which are walled, and contain a large variety of the chief fruits; and here, again, I found a number of young fellows being initiated into the arts of pomi-culture. Near by, too, was the vinery - another very important element, considering the attention that is now being bestowed, and bestowed with success, upon the vine. I was glad to hear that about twenty students had been busy in turn during the past week pruning the vines which I saw there. Between these walled gardens and the central buildings of the College I came across another carpenters shop - this one being more especially intended for household work, while in the other, as a rule, farm work is done. Here, for instance, I saw footstools, brackets, book-cases, doors, and window-sashes being made. Anyone who reflects for a moment on the necessity of being your own upholsterer when 300 or 400 miles up in the bush, will observe that this second carpenters shop has a very real use too.

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