458 Abstract Rejiort of Agricultural Discussions. 



:i certain substantial middle-class in society, whose sons may thns 

 command a fair middle-class education. If their professional life 

 averages as much at thirty years, then 1000 yoimg men of this class 

 are every year drafted in this country from the rank of agricultural 

 student or apprentice to that of professional agriculturist. Now, we 

 may assume that there is at least a period of three or four years in 

 the student or ap])reutice life of each when educational stimulus 

 and guidance would be professionally usefid ; and it thus appears 

 that there is always a constituency of 3000 or 4000 young men in 

 England open to that educational influence which this Society 

 might, and, as I believe, ouglit to exert. To apjily the rein and 

 spur to this large body, therefore, is the work which has to 

 l»c done. 



How is it to be done V I know no other way of offering the 

 stimulus and guidance which are needed tlian the old-fashioned plan 

 of offering prizes to candidates, and doterminiiig their ridative merit 

 by examination. It is hardly possible, no doubt, for any dispassionate 

 observer to avoid the conclusion that the guidance of exiierience, and 

 tlie stimulus of desired professional success, and of looked-for good 

 social position, are really the guidance and the stimulus by which 

 agricultural education is, and always will be, efficiently promoted in 

 this country. Nevertheless, it is consistent with all experience, both 

 that valuable prizes and distinctions to be won at competitive exami- 

 natifms, are an effective addition to the natural rewards Avhich educa- 

 tion confers ujion the student ; and that the programme of trustworthy 

 examiners is an effective addition to the natural guidance which 

 experience confers ujion instructors. 



I have, indeed, lieard it asserted that this system of examination 

 and reward is Avholly inapplicable to the agi'icultural student or 

 apprentice. It is alleged that there is no possibilitj' of testing agri- 

 cultural knowledge and efficiency except in actual practice. The 

 objection might be made with exactly equal force to those exami- 

 nations through which naval officers take their successive steps in 

 rank, and there certainly it is altogether untenable. But, indeed, I 

 am qiiite certain that all who have had any experience in agricultural 

 examinations, whether they be professors determining the industry 

 and capacity of a student before he is passed, or agents ascertaining 

 the ability and qualifications of a bailiff before he is engaged, must 

 admit the power of an examiner to ascertain whether any candidate 

 for the rewards at his disposal has been a diligent and successful 

 agricultural student or apprentice. 



In order, then, to carry out a system of examinations of this kind, 

 which I believe would be perfectly efficient in agriculture as it is in 

 other j)rofessions, I would have this Society seek the alliance of the 

 leading local farmers' clubs. The whole coimtry is divided into 

 eight or ten — I do not know how many — districts, which the Society 

 visits in rotation. There are active farmers' clubs in each, with lots 

 of vitality and energy. The Hexham, Newcastle, and Penrith 

 Tarmers' Clubs in the north ; the Wirral Farmers' Club in Cheshire, 

 the Midland Farmers' Club in Birmiagham, the Kiagscote Farmera' 



