14 THE PLACE OF RURAL ECONOMY 



Acting under the powers delegated by the Council the 

 Committee at their first meeting on May 6 co-opted 

 eight additional members, and at the same time elected 

 as Chairman the President of St. John's College. So 

 energetically did the Committee deal with the terms of 

 their reference that their Report was presented to the 

 Hebdomadal Council on June 18, having been signed 

 by every member. The recommendations were to the 

 effect that the existing scientific courses should be 

 utilized as the stock on which special agricultural 

 teaching could be engrafted, and that the latter should 

 be provided by the Sibthorpian Professor aided by 

 a technical assistant. The scheme was a very modest 

 one, and was intended to undergo extension and de- 

 velopment as students approached the final stage of 

 their training. Regarded from this point of view it 

 would have proved useful as a starting-point, but it may 

 be remarked that the equipment suggested was much 

 more restricted in character than was that of other 

 Universities which were shaping agricultural depart- 

 ments about the same time. Whether the scheme 

 failed to commend itself to the Council because it went 

 too far, or because it did not go far enough, I am not 

 able to say ; for us it is sufficient to know that no action 

 was taken upon the recommendations. This, it seems 

 to me, is to be regretted for several reasons. In the 

 first place Oxford has missed the opportunity of train- 

 ing men at a time when the country was specially in 

 need of teachers ; and, in the second, the ground has 

 now to a certain extent been occupied, and, especially, 

 public funds have been allocated to institutions that put 

 themselves into line with public requirements, and now 

 such funds appear to be permanently ear-marked or 

 exhausted. There are, however, certain advantages in 



