77 



itinrraiif or local classes and for 111,- (lin-ctioii of fickl demonstration or feediiiR 

 • •xpt'riiut'Uts. 



The University Collopre of North Wales, at Biuigor,\vas the first to 

 ori<,nnate such a typical school and to supply a '' complete and very 

 extensive system of agricultural instruction for a group of counties." 

 The phin has now been adopted by all of the ten institutions receiving 

 aid from the parliameutary grant. 



External AVork or the Colleges. 



The external work varies somewhat in its details among these 

 institutions, but conforms nevertheless to one general plan. The 

 2)lan consists in the establishing and maintaining, in whole or in ])art, 

 of secondarv schools at which instruction in airriculture is sfiven bv 

 professors from the central college; in the conducting of traveling 

 schools of agriculture that meet classes of pupils at numerous centers 

 throughout the district over Avhich the influence of the college 

 extends; in arranging and maintaining in the several counties experi- 

 ment farms and demonstration fields and farms where agricultural 

 o]5erations of the latest and most ajiproved character are conducteih 



The methods employed in organizing and coutlucting the traveling 

 schools are substantially those in use by the county councils. The 

 classes are organized in different centers and are given instruction 

 in but one subject. The series of lectures and demonstrations upon 

 that subject constitute a course which usually requires about ten days 

 to complete. 



By this method of devoting all of the time to a single topic expe- 

 rience has shown that better results are secured than where the course 

 consists of lectures ujion several subjects. By concentrating upon 

 one topic reasonably thorough instruction can be given in that 

 branch, whereas by the other method of treating several subjects a 

 vague and unsatisfactory impression is too frequently the only 

 result. 



Inasmuch as the colleges receiving aid from the Government grant 

 for agricultural instruction are the agents of the board of agriculture 

 in its work of aiding the farming people by means of traveling 

 schools, no statement of the system of j)eripatetic instruction in Great 

 Britain is complete that fails to show what these institutions are 

 doing outside of their stated indoor work at the collegiate centers. 

 And since the methods used by the several institutions in conducting 

 their movable schools differ quite materially from each other, it has 

 been deemed advisable to present somewhat in detail the work of 

 those whose systems differ most Avidely. 



The following extracts from the reports of the inspectors appointed 

 by the boartl of agriculture to visit the collegiate centers for the year 



