REPORT OF TEE DIRECTOR. 45 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



parents, and evidence of the influence of this oat on the progeny is visible in the 

 character of the panicle, in which the number of grains in the cluster is increased. 

 These crosses seem likely to be veiy productive. Sufficient quantities of some of the 

 more promising of these new cereals have been secured for experimental tests in 

 Canada. 



AGRICULTUEAL EDUCATION AND EXPEKIMENTAL AGRICULTURE 



IX ENGLAND. 



A large sum is annually paid by the government of Great Britain to the forty-nine 

 County Councils of England for technical education. This amounted to £826,450 in 

 1897-8, and £834,908 in 1898-9, being an average of over four million dollars per 

 annum. A proportion of this is spent in educational and experimental work in 

 agriculture. The total amount spent during the past year for the promotion of 

 agriculture was about £80,000, nearly $400,000. The work is carried on in many 

 different ways, but a considerable sum is spent in conducting agricultural field experi- 

 ments, a largQ proportion of which are experiments with manures on various crops. 

 Other sums are devoted to horticulture, dairying, poultry keeping, bee keeping, 

 farriery. &c. In many instances this work is carried on directly under control of 

 committees of the council, who establish agricultural and horticultural schools, and 

 dairy institutions, direct field experiments in agriculture, arrange for competitions 

 in ploughing, hedging, ditching, horse-shoeing. &c., give scholarships in agriculture 

 to those attending schools and colleges, organize travelling dairies and employ 

 lecturers in agriculture and horticulture, who visit and address farmers in different 

 parts of the county. Reports are also published of the work carried on. 



Further grants for special work in connection with agricultural education and 

 research are given by the Board of Agriculture. These grants in 1898, amounted in 

 all to £7,350, nearly $36,750. The sums given vary from £50 to £800. 



. There is thus a considerable amount of money spent in promoting agrictilture in 

 England, much of which is no doubt well used, but in other instances monies are 

 probably less judiciously expended. 



The following are cited as examples of expenditure: — Surrey, a county which 

 spends from. £4,000 to £5,000 in connection with agricultural education, is said to spend 

 this simi in part directly under control of a committee of the council on horticultural 

 school gardens, instruction at shows, and on allotments and scholarships, and 

 indirectly instniction is given in bee keeping, under direction of the Berks Bee 

 Keepers' Association, and demonstrations in field experiments by the University 

 Extension College at Reading, an institution which this county conjointly with other 

 counties supports. 



The county of Cornwall, which spends from £1,200 to £1,500 yearly, expends this 

 directly through the technical instruction committee, assisted by local district 

 committees. 



Experiments are conducted in the manuring of permanent pastures, turnips and 

 other crops. Experiments are also conducted with different sorts of fruits. 



In several instances two or more counties combine in carrying on experimental 

 work or in maintaining agricultural schools, for example Durham, Cumberland, and 

 Xorthumberland combine in maintaining the agricultural work of the Durham 

 College of Science. 



VISIT TO COCKLE PARK. 



A visit was paid to the experimental farm v/orked by these three counties, known 

 as Cockle Park, which is about ten miles from Xewcastle-on-Tyne, and consists of 

 about 450 acres. Many experiments were in progress there with fertilizers on different 

 crops ; some varietal tests are conducted with oats, including some of the new varieties 



