142 EDUCATION. 



This Committee then recommended that :— 



" These buildings (the model farm buildings) are much too large to suit 

 ordinary tenants of the small portions of land attached to them, and there will, 

 therefore, be difficulty in disposing of the farms on advantageous terms ; but 

 we consider that their retention only involves the continued outlay of public 

 money without any adequate return ; and as the general opinion appears to be 

 that their alienation will be no loss to agricultural education in the country, 

 we entirely agree with the Royal Commissioners that these farms should be 

 got rid of as speedily as possible." 



The upshot of these recommendations of the Departmental Committee is 

 that, under Treasury sanction, we have sold nine of the farms, surrendered 

 to the landlords seven, relet one, and handed over two others to local 

 management. There are thus left only two, viz., the Munster farm at Cork, 

 and the Albert Institution, Glasnevin. 



The case of the Munster farm is interesting. Just as the Commissioners 

 were taking steps to get rid of it a movement was set 

 The Munster on foot in Cork to reanimate it, and to make its 

 Institute, Cork. operation a lever in the revival of the butter trade of 

 Cork. The following extract of a letter addressed by 

 the Commissioners to the Lords of the Treasury on the 24th of June, 1880, 

 will best explain the views of the Board, and the new development agricul- 

 tural education had a likelihood of making : — 



" The Board was led to understand that a movement of some importance 

 was on foot in the city and county of Cork, having for its special object the 

 diffusion of agricultural science generally, and especially a knowledge of what 

 is technically called * Dairy-farming.' The great agricultural trade of the 

 South of Ireland is butter-making. In former times the butter of the Cork 

 market was esteemed very highly throughout the United Kingdom. In recent 

 times the Cork ' brand ' declined considerably in public favour. The 

 movement referred to has for its special object a revival of the distinction 

 which the Cork butter formerly enjoyed. This movement is represented in 

 Cork by a committee of influential persons connected with the farming interests 

 of the South of Ireland. The Commissioners learned that a committee was 

 anxious to co-operate with them in making the model farm a centre for impor- 

 tant agricultural experiments, a school for practical instruction for agricultural 

 students, and a training establishment for the education of dairymaids. The 

 Board could not be indifferent to such a proposal, and they therefore cordially 

 entered into its consideration, in the sanguine expectation that even at the 

 eleventh hour agricultural education might in this instance prove a success.^' 



Luckily, this appeal gained the Treasury sanction. The local com- 

 mittee, in augmentation of the Parliamentary grant in the first year, sub- 

 scribed ;^526. The experiment so far has been eminently successful. Since 

 1880 over a hundred dairymaids have undergone a course of training in the 

 schools of at least six weeks' duration in each instance. The butter which 

 was made at the school almost immediately obtained a high reputation, and 

 commanded the best price. At the Birmingham Dairy Show, in 1881, the 

 success of the school produced quite a sensation in the agricultural world 

 The prizes which it obtained at the Show were First, Second, and Third, 

 in the fresh butter classes. 



Subsequently, in the same year, at Islington, other important prizes were 



