II 



current courses, he maintained, were far too scientific ; chemistry, 

 botany and kindred sciences should be reduced to a minimum in 

 favour of work on the farm, a thoroughly popular programme 

 which appealed to the " practical men" in the room. 



Lord Monteagle then opened the second part of the proceedings, 

 on the education of the small farmer, with an account of the way 

 the Irish Board of Agriculture had gone to work. 



In Ireland the central authority administered the larger part of 

 the fund, contributing five-ninths of the cost of any work, and se- 

 curing four ninths from the local authority ; thus the organisation 

 proceeded more evenly over the whole country than in England, 

 where the initiative rests with the local authority. Next, they had 

 proceeded in Ireland on the principle of establishing no institution 

 until they had created a demand for it by means of pioneer lec- 

 turing and demonstrations. Lastly, in Ireland they believed that 

 the industrial organisation of the farmers must go hand in hand 

 with their education. 



Prof. Wallace, of Edinburgh, who followed dwelt on the neces- 

 sity of beginning an agricultural training at an early age, so far 

 as practical work on the farm went, leaving the true technical in- 

 struction to come when the lad had matured. Mr. Frederick 

 Verney also dwelt on the harm that was being done to country 

 children by keeping them at unsuitable school subjects until they 

 had lost all taste for farming pursuits ; the present system of ele- 

 mentary education contributed both to the depopulation of the 

 country and the overcrowding of the towns. 



Mr. H. Hobhouse, M.P., spoke on the value of attaching agri- 

 cultural sides to the ordinary country grammar schools the training 

 would not be technical, but scientific with an agricutural bias. 



After lunch Mr. Morant expressed his pleasure at the opportu- 

 nity the conference afforded him of learning the feelings of the 

 great agricultural community towards the educational system of 

 the country. He assured the meeting that the Board of Education 

 was wholly anxious to assist, provided the men who represented 

 agriculture on such occasions would make their views precise, and, 

 instead of grumbling at large, would indicate exactly what worked 

 harshly or harmfully in the present arrangements controlled by 

 the Board of Education. 



A paper by Sir C. Dyke Acland was then read in his absence ; 

 it dealt with the education of the labourer, and was, like so many 

 that followed, a plea for more intelligent teaching in our elemen- 

 tary schools, and for a more flexible system which would partially 

 liberate boys at an earlier age for light work on the farm. Mr. 

 G. Lambert, M.P., and Mr. Martin F. Sutton emphasized this point 

 of view, and, like Mr. Acland, they agreed that in the main rural 

 labour difficulties had been caused by keeping the rate of wages 

 too low, with consequent loss of efficiency. 



The last section of the conference, on the education of the 

 teacher and expert, was opened by Mr. A D Hall, who pleidid 



