Twenty years ago there was no public system of Agricultural * 

 Education. A system, imperfect it is true, has been developed. 

 What has it cost? What direct expenditure has been incurred? 

 As the Board have been associated with the movement from the 

 beginning, the difficulty of forming a tolerably accurate estimate 

 is not very great. 



The funds now available for agricultural education come from 

 three sources: 



1) Private benefactions. 



2) Government Grants. 



3) The "Higher Education" Funds of Local Education Au- 

 thorities. 



Several of the institutions aided by the Board are indebted for 

 buildings, scholarships and equipment to private munificence, and 

 in a few cases a substantial portion of the annual income is de- 

 rived from the same source. These gifts have from time to time 

 been referred to in the Board's Reports. Among important be- 

 nefactions may be mentioned the contributions of the Worshipful 

 Company of Drapers to the Agricultural Department of Cambridge 

 University (i ooo per annum for professorships, and a donation 

 of 6 ooo to the School of Agriculture now building). Further 

 instances of the extent to which Agricultural Education is indebted 

 to benefactors are afforded by the " Harper Adams Bequest, " 

 which provided for the building of a College in Shropshire, and 

 has endowed it with about 800 per annum; the " Scale Hayne " 

 and "John Innes " bequests, providing respectively for agricultural 

 instruction and horticultural research, the building of a School of 

 Rural Economy and the augmentation by 600 per annum of the 

 income of the Sibthorpian Foundation by St. John's College, Ox- 

 ford; and also by the substantial sums (amounting in the case of 

 the Cambridge School alone to over 12 ooo (303 ooo francs), given 

 chiefly by landowners) which have been subscribed for buildings 

 and other objects connected with our agricultural institutions. 



With the exception of the grants earned for classes in the prin- 

 ciples of Agriculture from the Science and Art Department, all 

 the State aid available for technical instruction in Agriculture was, 

 until 1902, given in the form of grants to institutions through the 

 Board of Agriculture. These grants increased gradually from 

 i 630 (paid by the Agricultural Department of the Privy Council) 

 in 1888-9 to ^ I2 I0 m 1907-8 (305 525 francs). 



After the Education Act of 1902 came into force the Board 



