Agricultural Education. 44't> 



The Existing State op AaracuLTUKAL Educatiox.- 



3. Our tMrd subject is the existing state of agriciiltui-al education 

 in tliis country. If tliis is to be measured by results, a great advance 

 may be generally claimed as baving been achieved diu'ing tbe past 

 thirty or forty years. No doubt there are exceptional poor cJay-land 

 districts of small farms in the country, whence neither landlord, 

 tenant, nor labourer — neither producer nor consumer — get much more 

 per acre than they did half a century ago. But it is impossible for 

 any agricultural historian to avoid the conclusion that on the whole 

 the productiveness and fertility of the country have largely increased 

 within living memory. And accordingly the pictures which om" 

 agricultm-al historians — Mr. Thom2)Son and the late Mr. Pusey — have 

 drawn, are suf&ciently indicative of the fact that more bread and meat 

 are now grown annixally in England than it has ever before yielded. 



By v/ay of datum line for comparison, I may here give a short 

 account of what might be called, from all I have heard of it, one of 

 the example farms of Europe— the Wilhelmina Polder, in the province 

 of Zeeland, Holland, which includes 3000 acres, and was enclosed 

 from the sea nearly sixty years ago. Mr. van den Bosch — a share- 

 holder in that property from the beginning, and all the time the 

 resident manager of it, who is himself both a highly-educated gentle- 

 man and a good practical farmer — has all along kept accurate 

 accounts of this thoroughly well-organised estate. The land is 

 alluvial, and nearly all more or less clayey ; it is all arable, and is 

 cultivated in six farms upon the jilan of a long and carefully observed 

 rotation of croj), in which, besides our annual English crops, madder 

 occupies an important place. Fi'om the decennial averages which 

 have been struck, it appears that the proj)erty is gradually increasing 

 in fertility. Thus, comparing the 10 years, 1821-30, with the 10 

 years, 1851-60, 80 years asimder, I am told that the average produce 

 of wheat per acre has increased from 31 to 36 bushels ; of rye, from 

 31'to 35 ; of oats, from 61 to 62 ; of barley, from 50 to 55 bushels ; 

 while the returns of beans and peas have been stationary. It is, 

 perhaps necessary to add that some considerable additions of rather 

 poorer soil have been made to the original area during the interval, 

 so that the average increase of the same soil ought properly to be 

 put somewhat higher than these figm'cs represent. It must be ad- 

 mitted also that an alluvial soil, natui'ally fertile, is not the best on 

 which to look for increased rctm-ns ; nevertheless, I am inclined to 

 think that there are few districts in this country, though generally 

 managed in a much less systematic manner, where, owing to land- 

 drainage, guano, artificial manm-es, and purchased cattle-food, the 

 increased fertility is not much greater than it has been observed to bo 

 on this, one of the largest and best managed farms upon the Con- 

 tinent. If, for example, the Cotswold district be taken for compari- 

 son — where we have a comparatively poor thin soil, benefited but 

 little by land-drainage, which is undoubtedly the greatest fertiliser of 

 all — there is ample evidence to prove that the wheat-crop, for instance, 

 which in the early part of this century did not exceed 2 quarters an 



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