IN A UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM 17 



means might be found to remove the more serious 

 objections of those who voted non-placet in 1898, and 

 with some of these objections I personally have con- 

 siderable sympathy. 



Since 1891, when the teaching of Agriculture within 

 the walls of this University was first seriously con- 

 sidered, we have seen created, in the University College 

 of Reading, a Department of Agriculture that is full of 

 vitality and vigour. To a certain extent the Depart- 

 ment there occupies ground that would have been 

 covered by this University had it taken action earlier. 

 The Committee of the Hebdomadal Council contem- 

 plated in 1891 the supply of courses of instruction suit- 

 able to the requirements of the sons of farmers, most 

 of whom, presumably, it was intended to attract from 

 Oxfordshire and contiguous counties. The Depart- 

 ment at Reading is now undertaking this work, and 

 probably undertaking it with a larger measure of success 

 than the University could have hoped to achieve. It 

 goes without saying that if the University were now to 

 offer a complete course of instruction in Agriculture, 

 a certain proportion of the students would prove to be 

 the sons of tenant farmers, but probably the actual 

 number would be small. From the point of view of the 

 University, short-course students do not fit quite com- 

 fortably into the academic machine ; while, viewed from 

 the standpoint of such students, the greater expense of 

 residence here would act as a deterrent. To educate 

 directly the future cultivators of our English acres is 

 work of the highest importance, but, so far as the rank 

 and file of such men are concerned, the task can be 

 better performed at Reading than in Oxford. Again, 

 if action within the University had followed on the 

 Report of 1891 it is not unlikely, judging by experiences 



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