Agricultural Education. 4513 



Club in Gloucestershire, the Hungerford, the Dorchester, tlic Botley, 

 the Maidstone Farmers' (UuLs, and many others, in the south. Any 

 of these, I am persuaded, or where there is more than one in any of 

 the Society's districts — then two or more united — could, and I believe 

 would, readily accept a commission from this Society in connexion 

 with this subject. It is surely not an extravagant supposition that in 

 every one of the districts on the Society's list 100/. could be annually 

 collected through the local clubs in each from landowners and others 

 interested in agricultural prosperity, to be awarded by the Society's 

 examiners, in substantial scholarships and prizes, to the most intelli- 

 gent agricultural students belonging to each district. If only ten or 

 a dozen young men in every district should at first come forward to 

 claim these rewards, great good woxild be done. But I cannot doubt 

 that, stirred up by the local agencies, which would seciire just that 

 kind of publicity which the scheme requii-cs, largely increased num- 

 bers would ultimately strive for the honours and substantial advan- 

 tages of success at the local Eoyal Agricultural Society's professional 

 examinations. 



I do not, however, pretend to discuss this matter in any detail. No 

 doubt there arc plenty of difficulties in the way, but none insuperable, 

 as I believe. At any rate, I earnestly hope that this great Society, 

 which has successfully accomplished one most serviceable piece of 

 jirofessional education during its career — I mean, educated the great 

 body of the landowners of this coimtry into a taste for agricultiu-al 

 pursuits — will make the effort which is expected from it to promote 

 the professional education of those who are still more directly de- 

 pendent upon the cultivation of the land for their support. 



Mr. Eaymond Barker proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Morton for 

 his varied and interesting lecture. 



Mr. Dent, M.P., in seconding the motion, said, there could be no 

 question as to the very great value and the very great fairness of the 

 lecture. He thought the observations in the early j)ortion of the 

 lecture, as to the requisites for making a good farmer, were par- 

 ticularly valuable. The great difficulty was to educate farmers so as 

 to enable them to cultivate land with ability and profit. Having sat 

 for a short time on the Education Committee of the Eoyal Agricul- 

 tural Society, he must say that the more they had studied that question 

 the greater seemed to be the difficulties with which it is surrounded. 

 The chief difficulty lay in this, that, while you vv'ished to give a good 

 education in general subjects at school, you desired also that early 

 habits of observation should not be impaired, but rather, if j^ossible, 

 strengthened, during the school period ; and lie could quite understand 

 that to keep a boy too long at school might tend to injure his jDowers 

 of observation. But, then, speaking from his own experience of 

 farmers — men who farmed from 200 to 250 acres — he should say that 

 few of them kept their children at school for even a fair amount of 

 time, while a very large number of boys left school almost as early as 

 labourers' sons, their education being of a very meagre and indifferent 

 description. The worst feature of the case, perhaps, was that when 

 these boys left school it Vv-as merely to go on their fathers' farms, and 



