138 EDUCATION. 



of instruction in the Normal School for the Training of Teachers in Marl- 

 borough-street. This was in the year 1838. 



A lecture upon agriculture was accordingly given to the students of the 

 Normal School daily. Without expository instruction 

 Glasneyin upon the farm, it was, however, conceived that this 



Model Farm. lecture would be productive of somewhat compara- 

 tively barren results. It was, therefore, determined 

 by the Board in the same year, 1838, to take a farm at Glasnevin, in the 

 vicinity of Dublin, to which the literary students in training might have 

 easy access, and upon which they might see, practically carried out, the 

 plans and systems of agriculture and horticulture recommended in the daily 

 lectures. This, in point of fact, was the origin of the agricultural depart- 

 ment of the Irish National system of education. It is particularly im- 

 portant to observe this. The Glasnevin farm was not designed merely 

 to bring up a race of skilled stewards and skilled practical farmers. Its 

 original and primary purpose, on the contrary, was simply to qualify the 

 ordinary elementary schoolmasters to instruct their pupils in the theory of 

 agricultural science, and, where practicable, in school gardens and small 

 farms attached to the National schools, to illustrate their teaching by refer- 

 ence to the operations on the gardens and farms. The Commissioners 

 explicitly stated at the time, in their report presented to Parliament, that 

 their object was not to teach trades, but to facilitate a learning of them by 

 explaining the principles upon which they depend, and by habituating 

 young persons to expertness in the use of their hands. 



The function of Templemoyle was exclusively to produce skilled farmers ; 

 that of Glasnevin, as I have said, was mainly to qualify elementary teachers 

 to instruct the pupils of rural schools in the principles of agricultural science. 

 I say mainly, for the Commissioners entertained the idea that, without 

 detriment to the interests of the schoolmasters, young men intending to 

 become farmers, stewards, and colonists, might also be received as pupils in 

 the institution. But the difficulty of directly, themselves, managing a farm 

 almost immediately occurred to the Commissioners.. How to make the 

 farm pay, and how to make it teach, cropped up as conflicting problems. It 

 is not surprising, therefore, to find that they soon shrank from the responsi- 

 bility of farming upon their own account ; and in the following year (1839) 

 they accordingly rented the farm to their agriculturist, an arrangement 

 which lasted until 1847, when, under the light of experience, they themselves 

 took courage to resume its working. The idea of engrafting agricultural 

 instruction upon the ordinary curriculum of an elementary school was 

 accepted in the country with positive enthusiasm. Landlords and others 

 who, on rehgious and political grounds, hated the National system, turned 

 invariably to this feature of the operations of the Board with the greatest 

 favour. 



The Devon Commission, in 1843, hailed the project, and recommended 

 the establishment of schools for agricultural instruction throughout the 

 country. Agricultural societies and leading public men expressed their 

 approval of the proposals with unstinted cordiality. But even at so early a 

 period as 1 848 an adverse criticism from so influential a quarter as the Select 

 Committee of the House of Commons on Miscellaneous Expenditure was 

 communicated to the Commissioners. This Committee expressed grave 

 doubts as to the policy of engrafting an agricultural department upon a 

 national system of Primary Education. The Commissioners, however, 



