8 



in some form or other is given in almost every country under British 

 rule. State departments of agriculture have been established and 

 equipped witli scientific apparatus, and officered by expert officials 

 who devote all of their time to the interests of agriculture. Univer- 

 sities, colleges, normal schools, academies, secondary schools, com- 

 mon schools, and numerous special classes are everywhere in opera- 

 tion. In almost all of them the giving of instruction in agriculture 

 is made obligatory. 



Although the purpose of this publication is to present the methods 

 in use in providing for the education in agriculture of the adult rural 

 population through the agency of itinerant teachers, it has been 

 found that this instruction work is in many instances so combined 

 with the system of general education that prevails as to be practically 

 insej^arable from it. In some of the coiuitries, for example, the insti- 

 tutions for higher education engage in the dual service of instructing 

 the youth in agriculture in fixed schools, as universities, colleges, and 

 high schools, and also in the work of carrying information to the 

 adult agricultural population by means of traveling schools and 

 itinerant teachers who visit localities, hold institute meetings, and 

 instruct temporary classes in special faruiing subjects. 



Where this method is adopted as in England, it has been neces- 

 sary, in order to its proper understanding, to give wnth considerable 

 particularity the details of the entire educational system, and also 

 the connection that exists between the forui of instruction conducted 

 by the universities and colleges, and that organized and operated by 

 the district governments. 



The giving of instruction in agriculture to adults by itinerant 

 methods is no longer an experiment in foreign countries, and work 

 in this direction is regarded by educators and the public generally 

 as being equally important with that performed in the class rooms 

 of the colleges and higher technical institutions. It has become a 

 recognized part of their educational system, as necessary as the col- 

 lege, the high school, or the university, and the character and quali- 

 fications of the instructors engaged in this form of education are in 

 most of the countries fully equal to those of the professors in the old- 

 established institutions. 



The high estimation in which peripatetic instruction is held abroad 

 is shown by the following memoranda on this subject by the Right 

 Hon. Horace Plunkett, vice-president of the department of agri- 

 culture and technical instruction for Ireland, who was a member of 

 the recess committee of Parliament apjDointed to visit continental 

 countries and make investigations and report upon the various sys- 

 tems of agricultural education in use in these countries. He says : 



If there is one feature of agricultural education which, having been tested 

 to the utmost In everj' country of the world, has stood that test better than any 



