26 THE PLACE OF RURAL ECONOMY 



not advocate a violent breach with the past, and even 

 if reform went no further than the provision of post- 

 graduate instruction of an applied character, the neces- 

 sities of the case would, to a c ertain extent, be met. It 

 would, of course, satisfy the requirements of men who, 

 having completed the stage of undergraduate without 

 having discovered a career, might be glad to specialize 

 for a year or more with a view to making a profession 

 of Agricultural Science. There must also be a con- 

 siderable body of men who would remain in residence 

 after taking a degree, were facilities provided for the 

 prosecution of Agricultural Research under competent 

 direction. And, omitting the word ' degree ', the same 

 remark may be applied to women, several of whom have 

 already made no inconsiderable contributions to Agri- 

 cultural Research. But human nature being what it is, 

 and most individuals having more or less definitely 

 shaped their plans for life by the time they leave school, 

 it is evident that to them the prospects of post-graduate 

 study alone would not appeal with sufficient attractive- 

 ness. For them, therefore, an earlier opportunity for 

 study not necessarily of, but in the direction of Agri- 

 culture would have to be supplied, such, in fact, as is 

 provided for in the proposals laid before Congregation 

 in 1898. Judging by the experience of other University 

 Departments of Agriculture it might not unreasonably 

 be anticipated that a School of Agriculture in Oxford 

 would, to begin with, receive annually some ten or 

 twelve entrants, and that, within a few years, it might 

 contain a body of students numbering forty to fifty. 



A section of undergraduates that must not be over- 

 looked in discussing a scheme for Agricultural Education 

 in Oxford is furnished by the Rhodes Scholars. These 

 men are drawn from countries where, for the most part, 



