67 



the Leicester Educational Coiiiniittee, the P^astern Counties Dairy 

 Institute, and the British Dairy P^inners' Institute. 



As has been stated, the board of agricuUure, in organizing the work 

 of agricuhural education for Great Britain, adopted the plan of 

 grouping the counties, establishing an agricultural college or high 

 school in each group, the work of agricultural education in each to 

 be largely under the general direction of the central institution. 



In 1S!)0 an important nioditication of the work of providing for 

 agricultural instruction was brought about through the passage of 

 an excise act by Parliament, whereby the local authorities, known as 

 county councils, were ait'orded large additional resources derived from 

 local taxation, and were intrusted with discretionary power to use 

 the funds thus supplied, in providing such forms of agricultural 

 teaching as were embraced in the technical-instruction act of 188{\ 

 Until this time financial support for local agricultural institutions 

 was from the Government grant, and the formation of the courses of 

 study was in the hands of the central college established for the dis- 

 trict. The legislation of 1890 rendered the counties independent of 

 Government aid in carrying on their agricultural education work 

 and enabled them to inaugurate a system of instruction of their own. 



The sums thus placed at the disposal of the county councils are 

 quite considerable. In 1901-2 the receipts from the excise tax, 

 available for technical instruction in England and Wales, a^mounted 

 to £708,517. Of this sum £88,893 were used directly in 1902-3 in 

 aid of agricultural education. The distribution for that vear was as 

 follows : 



General exiienditures . £7,223 



Dairy instruction 12,845 



Agricultural lectures 5,715 



Poultry keeping 3,284 



Farriery and veterinary science 2, 542 



Bee keeping 1' 380 



Horticulture lf>' o6- 



Manual processes 1,'511 



Miscellaneous -^' "^'^ 



Scholarships W- '"^00 



Colleges and schools 28.288 



Total S«.893 



AVhen the Government grant for agricultural education was first 

 made and for two years thereafter the board of agriculture aided the 

 county councils from this general grant, but when the act of 1890, 

 making provision for agricultural educational work in the counties, 

 became effective the funds belonging to the parliamentary grant were 

 devoted exclusively to the aid of the colleges which had been estab- 

 lished as centers of education in agriculture in the various districts, 



