8 THE PLACE OF RURAL ECONOMY 



on the question that we are considering. In the first 

 of these years there was presented to Parliament the 

 Final Report of the Departmental Committee on Agri- 

 cultural and Dairy Schools, presided over by Sir Richard 

 Paget. This Committee pointed out that whereas cer- 

 tain facilities for education in Rural Economy were 

 available at one or two private institutions, where the 

 fees were necessarily high, the requirements of practical 

 farmers were essentially unprovided for. Recognizing 

 the absence of a supply of qualified teachers, they 

 recommended that the work of organizing agricultural 

 education should be undertaken slowly, and suggested 

 that a beginning might be made with five Dairy Schools 

 in England and Wales, and a Normal Central Institu- 

 tion, where skilled teachers might be trained. As a 

 result, 5,000 was placed at the disposal of the Agri- 

 cultural Department of the Privy Council, of which 

 1,630 was expended in England and Wales in the 

 year 1888-1889. The money was for the most part 

 distributed over schemes of itinerant instruction, the 

 only collegiate centre to receive a grant being the 

 University College of North Wales. 



The second event of importance was the creation in 

 1889 of the Board of Agriculture, and to it were 

 transferred the functions previously exercised by the 

 Agricultural Department of the Privy Council, in- 

 cluding the supervision of Higher Agricultural Educa- 

 tion and Research. The Board at once proceeded to 

 develop the policy of encouraging the formation of 

 well-equipped Agricultural Departments in provincial 

 colleges, with which adjoining local authorities could 

 be associated, and to which they could look for the 

 educational machinery necessary to meet their require- 

 ments. In pursuance of this policy, grants for schemes 



