152 GENERAL IMPRESSIONS IN 1910 



see, in the unresponsiveness of the British agriculturist 

 to any co-operative schemes, the same lack of ap- 

 preciation of general ideas. For all these reasons we 

 feel justified in concluding that the average British 

 farmer is not educated up to his position or his 

 opportunities ; but it is not so much technical educa- 

 cation that is lacking as an awakening to ideas, and 

 that, probably, is more likely to come in the next 

 generation from the general tuning-up of the country 

 grammar schools than from the growth of agricultural 

 colleges. Of course, we would not for a moment 

 minimize the value of the work these latter bodies 

 have accomplished ; no one can fail to see the entire 

 change in the attitude of the better farmers towards 

 science and education during the last twenty years, 

 and this change is most marked in the districts in 

 touch with an energetic agricultural college ; but 

 still both the inclination and the ability to make use 

 of the technical advantages provided by the agricultural 

 college depend on the preliminary training of the 

 grammar school and the mental attitude that it 

 creates. If we can only create that respect for the 

 things of the mind which so markedly characterizes the 

 Scandinavian agricultural community, to take perhaps 

 the most striking example available, the British farmer 

 need never fear the competition of the new countries. 

 In one technical detail, also, the British farmer's 

 education is defective : he has never learnt a system 

 of book-keeping adapted to the farm, a system which 

 will show him the profit and loss on each branch 

 of his business cattle raising, milk producing, crop 

 growing instead of merely his indebtedness or other- 

 wise to A, B, and C with whom he trades. It is true 

 that the teachers of book-keeping have never put 

 such a system before him, but it is a problem that our 



