AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

IN the August issue of this Review there appeared a brief account of the systematic steps taken throughout the past century to provide agricultural education in the United States. The movement here is of much later origin. It was not until 1888 that the Government, upon the recommendation of Sir Richard Paget's Departmental Committee, first adopted the policy of giving direct aid to agricultural and dairy schools by specific annual grants. Progress since that date has been considerable, and, on the whole, satisfactory. The grants have steadily but slowly risen from 2,6107. in 1889, to 10,6251., including the special grants for experiment and research, for the year 1904-1905.1 Such a sum is, of course, insignificant when compared with the vast State expenditure upon agricultural education in the United States, Canada, France, Würtemberg, and Denmark. In Ireland, too, according to the last report of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, the net amount of the expenditure on the agricultural side of the Department's work in 1904-1905, including 7,500l. allocated for manual instruction and instruction in domestic economy in rural districts, was 166,8951. The grants by the English Board of Agriculture, however, do not include the cost incurred in the necessary inspection of the institutions aided; nor do they take any account of what is expended by local authorities out of the residue grant under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890, commonly called the whisky money. From this source a sum of 87,4721. was devoted to various forms of agricultural education for the year 1904-1905. This represents a total outlay by central and local authorities of nearly 100,000l. per annum, to which ought to be added the grants paid by the Board of Education to continuation schools in so far as they embrace agricultural subjects. Agriculturists would have little reason to complain of the insufficiency of these subsidies, provided they could be assured that the local aid would continue to be upon the same scale as here

Since the publication of the last statistics the following additional grants have been made :-Ridgmont Agricultural Institute, 1007.; Hants Farm School at Basing, 100%.; Midland Agricultural and Dairy Institute, 8001. instead of 7501.

tofore, and provided that the central funds were more equitably distributed. In regard to the first point there is a good deal of uncertainty. Under the Education Act of 1902 the residue grant is applicable to all branches of higher education, and education committees are called upon to provide out of it, together with their own education rate, for the maintenance of secondary schools of all types, new secondary schools, university and higher technical training, technical (including agricultural and technological) instruction, continuation schools, scholarships and exhibitions, and the training of teachers. It is obvious that the funds at the disposal of county councils, even when a maximum rate is levied, which it will be extremely difficult to levy in rural districts, are wholly inadequate to the proper satisfaction of these wide obligations, and the interests of agriculture may suffer. It has thus become increasingly important for agriculturists generally to urge their claims, if they are not to be stifled by other pressing demands. Already the local aid to agriculture shows some tendency to diminish. Although the residue grant for 1904-1905 was 8167. in excess of that for the previous year, the amount appropriated out of it to agricultural education was less by 3,7931. At the same time the changes effected by the Act of 1902 afford good ground for appealing to the Government that the Board of Agriculture may be entrusted with much larger funds for educational purposes.

The glaring defect in the present situation is the absence of anything in the nature of a national system. There is no central authority responsible for the agricultural education of the whole country. Provision for the needs of each county depends upon the policy of each particular council. Englishmen justly pride themselves on their jealousy of State interference and their preference for local or private initiative, but there is a point at which this disinclination to accept State guidance or direction becomes a positive evil. The inevitable result is that, while some counties have elaborated excellent schemes with carefully graduated courses of instruction from the elementary school to the most advanced college, in others large districts, especially those in which the art of farming has sunk to the lowest ebb, are entirely neglected. This was very clearly demonstrated by a map which Lord Onslow, when President of the Board of Agriculture, had prepared for a conference on agricultural education at Gloucester in October 1904. It was shown that none of the counties, proceeding from Warwickshire in a south-westerly direction, had any facilities for intermediate or higher education except the private and nonlocal colleges of Cirencester and Downton. Under the Seale-Hayne bequest Devon will eventually have a collegiate centre near Newton Abbot, to which Cornwall may be affiliated; otherwise the omissions indicated by the map remain as they were two years ago. It is hoped that the University of Oxford may ultimately occupy the same

position in relation to the western counties as the University of Cambridge does to the eastern, and grant an agricultural diploma or degree. Spasmodic and ineffectual lectures may occasionally be given, but often the only person who derives any benefit from them is the man paid for delivering them. It would not be easy to exaggerate the harm done in the past by sending, as pioneers, men with no knowledge of agriculture beyond that of a text-book, and speaking a language unintelligible to labourers. It will probably take a generation to eradicate the bad impression thus created, and to win the confidence of village people. Warned by our injudicious employment of itinerant instructors, the Irish Department have resolutely set their face against sanctioning attempts at this branch of agricultural education, until the trained and qualified teacher is available. In their opinion, not only is serious mischief done by bad teaching to those who are subjected to it, but in the districts where it is practised it ends by discrediting and setting back the cause of agricultural education for many years.'

With the object of introducing some uniformity of action, and placing unrelated effort upon a more systematic basis, the Agricultural Education Committee in October 1901 passed the following resolutions :

(1) That if the Board of Agriculture retain their present educational work, it is essential that there shall be complete co-operation between that Board and the Board of Education in all educational matters affecting the agricultural classes.

(2) That for purposes of agricultural education the country should be divided into districts, and such inspectors be appointed as may be necessary.

(3) That groups of counties, not yet affiliated to any collegiate centre, should be formed, each group being affiliated to some centre.

(4) That, after due inquiry, reports should be issued dealing with the most appropriate forms of agricultural education for each county. (5) That permanent demonstration stations should be organised in each county or group of counties.

(6) That official information bearing upon all matters of agricultural interest, whether educational or otherwise, should be distributed to the public free of cost.

(7) That to carry out the above objects it is essential that larger funds be placed at the disposal of the Board of Agriculture for educational purposes.

(8) That the work of the Board of Agriculture might be facilitated by the appointment of a Consultative Committee on the analogy of those of the Board of Education, and of the Department of Agriculture in Ireland.

It is to be regretted that the Committee, whose previous recommendations upon the curricula for village schools and upon the

training of teachers were adopted by the Board of Education, and which has never been formally dissolved, should have discontinued its valuable work. Such a Committee furnished the most effective means for forming and consolidating public opinion, and from its representative and influential character could bring a pressure to bear upon the Government which no other organisation, however strong it may be on the professional side, can exercise. The policy advocated by the Committee met with the general approval of the late Mr. Hanbury, and there is no reason for supposing that his successors at the Board of Agriculture are not in agreement with it. Effect has been partially given to some of the suggestions, but much remains to be done. The Boards of Agriculture and Education have loyally co-operated to promote agricultural welfare, and there is no evidence of any friction between them, but it is still urged by many that the educational functions of the latter should be transferred to the former, as provided by the Board of Education Act, 1899. The arguments in favour of having a single central authority responsible for all education are undeniable. It is, however, doubtful whether the transfer would operate to the benefit of agriculture. From a variety of causes the Board of Education is not popular with farmers, who regard all that emanates from it with considerable suspicion. This feeling is certainly disappearing through the tact and practical methods of Mr. Dymond, since his appointment as Inspector of Rural Education, but the ground to be covered is too vast for any single individual, and his duties must occasionally overlap those which more strictly fall within the sphere of the Board of Agriculture. With the educational work of that Board, so far as its small funds admit, little fault can be found; it merely requires expansion. Elsewhere no difficulty has arisen from having a dual authority. In France, for instance, the Ministries of Agriculture and Public Instruction have joint charge of agricultural education. Such agricultural or horticultural instruction as is given in primary o higher primary schools and in the normal (training) schools is in the hands of the latter; all beyond it in those of the former. This arrangement is carried out with perfect smoothness.

Some increase in the inspectorate has been made, but additional inspectors, who should be assigned to particular areas, are wanted. It is only in this way that the Board can be kept in complete touch with local activity.

The tendency of counties to group themselves in affiliation to some collegiate centre has developed. Every county in Wales, with the exception of Glamorganshire, is affiliated either to Bangor or Aberystwyth. In England the grouping is as follows: Wye (Kent and Surrey), Reading (Berks, Oxford, Hants, Dorset, and Bucks), Midland Dairy Institute (Notts, Leicester, Derby, and the Lindsey division of Lincoln), Leeds (the three Ridings of Yorks), Cambridge

(Bedford, Cambridge, Essex, Hertford, Huntingdon, Isle of Ely, Norfolk, Northampton, East and West Suffolk), Newcastle-uponTyne (Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and Westmorland), Harper Adams College (Shropshire and Staffordshire). The relationship between the affiliated counties and the centres varies considerably. In some cases there appears to be little, if any, organic connection; nor does the affiliated county always make any appreciable contribution towards the cost of maintaining the centre. Cambridge, for instance, where ampler funds are sorely needed, only obtained 7851. last year from the ten counties associated with it. Reading had nothing. Wye, on the other hand, received 2,7721. from Surrey.

Although the advice of the Board has been sought to an increasing extent, it does not appear that the Board has suo motu reported upon, or suggested schemes of instruction appropriate to, the varying circumstances of different counties. Were this seriously undertaken, it could hardly fail to be of great service. There would be no obligation upon any local authority to adopt the suggested scheme, but it would at least afford a definite proposal for discussion. In Ireland the Department early in summer prepares in outline a number of schemes likely to be of advantage to the whole country. These schemes are then submitted to the Agricultural Board, and, if this body approve of them and concur in the application thereto of the necessary funds, the schemes are forthwith sent to each of the thirtythree county committees. The committees meet in autumn, and, with the assistance of an inspector of the Department, select the schemes most appropriate to their county, and arrange details to suit local needs. The schemes, with an estimate of their cost, are afterwards returned to the Department, whose approval is accompanied by a statement of the proportion of the cost which they are prepared to defray.

A memorandum on a Council of Agricultural Research was recently prepared by the Board. The principal function of this council would be to promote original investigation, and to systematise and coordinate the experimental work now undertaken by various institutions. Hitherto the State has done little in this direction, and substantial aid from the Treasury is essential if the operations of the proposed council are to be made really effective.

The Board has not yet seen its way to appoint a consultative committee. The functions of such a committee can hardly be performed by the correspondents nominated in the different counties. The Irish Department is strengthened by its Consultative Committee of five members, its Agricultural Board of twelve members, and its Council of one hundred and four members. The official mind is thus kept in constant touch with the best lay opinion. Similarly in France and Holland the advisory councils form an integral part of their systems of agricultural education. Isolated correspondents, whatever