196 ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



been uncultivated but for the exertions of the Practical Instructors, it 

 was estimated that the system of Practical Instruction could not be carried 

 on at a cost less than £"2,600 per annum — i.e., £"2,000 for instruction 

 and £600 for seeds, etc. The report of the Committee was sent to His 

 Excellency the Lord Lieutenant who subscribed £1,000. The Society 

 reduced the number of instructors from 20 to 10, which number would 

 absorb His Excellency's subscription. The subsequent work of the Prac- 

 tical Instruction scheme though brief was full of usefulness. Taken as a 

 whole this project was one of the most beneficent and far-seeing for the 

 agriculture of Ireland. All classes united to take advantage of the instruc- 

 tion, and, fortunately, there were means available for teaching work, because 

 of the system of apprenticeship to agricultural horticulture which then 

 existed. Landed proprietors generally kept up establishments in the 

 country. At these the steward, or the man who held the combined office of 

 steward and gardener took apprentices to his work. A very considerable 

 number of these agriculturists, stewards, and gardeners were men of good 

 education, who had themselves been trained to their business ; many having 

 passed through apprenticeship in farming along with a service and instruc- 

 tion in the Trinity College or Glasnevin Botanic Gardens. Some English- 

 men and Scotchmen were amongst the class. Thoughtful, intelligent, and 

 industrious, they were eminently suited to the work. The subsequent 

 career of these Practical Instructors gave evidence of the high class men 

 that were engaged. On their being disbanded almost all of them became 

 well settled, being employed upon estates as agents, agriculturists, stew- 

 ards, or drainage engineers. Several were offered valuable farms with aid 

 towards stocking them on estates where their services had been appreciated 

 during their service as Instructors. 



If the work of the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society had termin- 

 ated with the scheme of Practical Instruction alone, its existence would 

 have been justified ; but its efforts on behalf of the improvement of farm 

 stock during a time when the difficulties of travelling and the movement of 

 stock were enormous were admirably conceived and carried out. 



It was, however, in what may be called its moral influence that the greatest 

 usefulness of the Society was manifested. Here was a Society composed of 

 all classes, brought together for the industrial development of the whole 

 country, in which, throughout its existence, almost complete harmony pre- 

 vailed. This is an influence that cannot be statistically expressed, but it was 

 none the less real for that ; and though its action was silent it was also signi- 

 ficant and widespread. A time came, however, when, from a variety of 

 causes, financial and other, the Society could no longer usefully carry out the 

 trust it had undertaken. Happily, the Royal Dublin Society, many of whose 

 Council members were also on the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 considered that an amalgamation of the Societies might be usefully effected ; 

 and, as the Royal Dublin Society had recently developed a spirit of agri- 

 cultural aid, the members of the Royal Agricultural Society were on the 

 whole not adverse to the proposed union. Accordingly, in 1887, an agree- 

 ment was entered into between the two great Societies that an amalgama- 

 tion by Royal Charter should be brought about. 



