AGRICULTURE 415 



making provision for all grades of instruction. The schemes to which effect is now being 

 given deal with research, higher and intermediate agricultural education. Provision for 

 research is being made by the foundation of a number of institutes, as a rule attached 

 to a university, each dealing with one branch of agricultural science. 



As regards higher agricultural education, England and Wales are divided into 12 provinces 

 in each of which an Agricultural College or Department of a University is located, where 

 long courses of instruction are given leading to a degree or diploma in agriculture. These 

 colleges receive grants from the Board of Agriculture of about 1000 each for education, 

 and in addition grants of 1000 each to provide a staff available for advisory work and local 

 investigation within its area, together with a further grant for a Live Stock officer charged 

 with the organisation of certain schemes for the improvement of live stock. 



As regards intermediate agricultural education, all forms of agricultural education below 

 the colleges were formerly under the supervision of the Board of Education, the county 

 being the unit of area and the County Council the authority, but in 1911 the control was 

 transferred to the Board of Agriculture, who administer a grant from the Development 

 Commissioners for the setting up of Farm Institutes. A farm institute may be established 

 by a single county or a group of counties and may take the form of a Farm School receiving 

 pupils for a year or less, a winter school giving short courses of instruction in the winter 

 months, or an institute serving as a centre for short courses of instruction in special subjects 

 and for the itinerant lecturers employed in the county. Travelling dairy schools and similar 

 practical instruction also form part of the programme of the institutes. 



In Scotland the whole of the agricultural education is supervised by the Scotch Board of 

 Agriculture, and is carried out under Colleges of Agriculture, associated with the Univer- 

 sities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. These colleges possess in addition to their 

 resident staff, which gives instruction leading up to the degree of B. Sc., a large extension 

 staff of whom one or more is resident in each county ihcluded in the province appropriated 

 to the college. These instructors give lectures, conduct experiments and generally advise 

 the farmers within their area. Many of the primary schools have developed a strong 

 agricultural side to their teaching but no farm institutes exist in Scotland. 



The provision of agricultural education in Ireland is administered by the Department of 

 Agriculture, working as regards intermediate and lower education in conjunction with 

 the County Councils. A three years' course of instruction in agriculture and the applied 

 sciences is given at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and a one year's course of a more 

 immediately practical character at the Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin, to both of 

 which institutions the Department grant scholarships. The Munster Institute, Cork, and 

 the Ulster Dairy School provide instruction in dairy work and creamery management, while 

 at Athenry, Co. Galway, Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan, and Clonakilty, Co. Cork, are agricultural 

 stations at which short courses of instruction, chiefly practical, are annually given. In 

 addition the Department maintains a service of itinerant instructors in agriculture working in 

 conjunction with the county councils. 



The most notable movement of late years has been the revival of interest in small 

 holdings. The returning prosperity of the agricultural industry consequent on the 

 rising prices of farm produce became noticeable about 1904-05; a demand 

 ffoidlnes. began to spring up for farms, until about 1908 it was rare to find farms in 

 hand in any parts of the country, and a year or two later so numerous were 

 the enquiries that increased rents could be obtained for all land that fell vacant. In 1910 

 rents were in some cases raised to the sitting tenants, and despite the fact that 1911 

 and 1912 proved bad seasons in certain parts of the country, there are still more appli- 

 cants for farms than can be satisfied and rents are everywhere rising. This demand for 

 land on the part of working men resulted in 1907 in the passing of the Small-Holdings 

 Act, amending the previous Act of 1892. The new Act gave county councils the power 

 not only to buy land and resell it to small holders but to take land on lease and let it on 

 such terms as would repay the councils for their expenditure. The county councils 

 were given compulsory powers for both purchase and hiring of land and a number of 

 commissioners were appointed to stimulate and assist the councils, the Board'of Agricul- 

 ture being given powers to put the Act in operation wherever it was found that the 

 county council was backward. Under this Act a large number of statutory small 

 holdings have been created, the success of which canriot as yet be estimated, though 

 there is evidence that the expenses incurred by a public body in purchase, division, the 

 erection of buildings, etc., are burdening the holdings with rents that are difficult to earn. 

 Under the operations of this Act holdings of between i and 50 acres, which had fallen to 

 their lowest number in 1908, increased from 287,176 to 292,488 in 1911. The Small 



