DECtMDER lO, 190b] 



NA TURE 



161 



IHE OKGANISATION OF RURAL 

 EDUCATION. 

 'PHE two publications of the Board of Education 

 ■^ before us, " Suggestions on Rural Education " 

 and " Memorandum giving an outline of the succes- 

 sive legislative and administrative conditions affect- 

 ing the relation of the Board of Education to Agri- 

 cultural Education in England and Wales," cast 

 several sidelights on the very curious administrative 

 situation which at present exists with regard to 

 agricultural education in this country. As the memor- 

 andum explains, the first move in this direction was 

 taken in 1SS8-9, when a sum of 5000^. was voted in 

 aid of " agricultural and dairy schools," and the 

 administration of this vote was handed over to the 

 Board of Agriculture on its creation in 1890. Almost 

 simultaneously the county councils became charged 

 with provision of technical instruction, and were 

 granted the so-called " whisky money " for its de- 

 velopment. The outcome was the creation of a 

 number of schools and colleges of agriculture, some 

 departments of existing universities, others inde- 

 [^endent institutions maintained by a group or by a 

 single county, supported in the main by county council 

 funds, but also subsidised and inspected by the Board 

 of Agriculture out of its grant of 5000L, which has 

 since grown to 11,550/. annuallv. The institutions 

 thus subsidised by the Board of Agriculture were, 

 however, all of the university or higher technical 

 school type ; other agricultural instruction in secondary 

 or primary schools, or by means of evening classes or 

 peripatetic teachers, was provided by the county 

 councils on their own initiative, and not recognised 

 officially by the Board of .Agriculture. 



The anomaly of thus cutting off part of the educa- 

 tional work of the country from the main stream of 

 education soon attracted attention, and during Sir 

 John Gorst's secretaryship a definite statement was 

 made that the educational work of the Board of 

 .\griculture would be transferred to the Board of 

 Education. However, with Mr. Hanbury's arrival at 

 the Board of Agriculture this idea was dropped, and 

 the Board strengthened its educational staff, while, as 

 may be seen from the report of the Committee on 

 .Agricultural Education which reported this year, it 

 appears to desire or to contemplate an extension of 

 its functions. Meantime, however, the Board of 

 Education had been moving in the same direction ; it 

 remained the authority dealing with rural education 

 in the primary and secondary schools, and by the ap- 

 pointment of two special inspectors it was evidently 

 taking up the question seriously. This being the case, 

 the manner in which the Board of Education was 

 ignored, both in framing the Committee on -Agri- 

 cultural Education and in calling for evidence, is so 

 remarkable that the recommendations of that com- 

 mittee cannot be regarded as of much weight, so 

 obvious is it that thev have given but little considera- 

 tion to the wider questions involved. 



The two documents before us may be taken to 

 indicate that the Board of Education does not regard 

 as settled the question of whether it shall not con- 

 trol the whole of rural education. But the two 

 departments will no doubt be left to settle this in their 

 own departmental way ; it may not be amiss, perhaps, 

 to consider the problem a little in the light of the 

 interests of agriculture and education. Clearly the 

 ideal state of affairs is that which prevails in Ireland, 

 where the Board of Agriculture and of Technical 

 Instruction is not divided, but administers the greater 

 part of the money and sets the example to the county 

 councils, instead of following their lead. As a result 

 v.e have in Ireland, though the work is younger, a 

 coherent system carried out with due regard to 



NO. 2041, VOL. 79] 



economy, which is educating the farmer and not 

 gratifying the short-sighted opinions of local com- 

 mittees. Real work is being done for agriculture, as 

 may be seen from the creation of the early potato 

 industry, the way the flax problem is being attacked, 

 the increased exports of butter, eggs and poultry. In 

 fine, in Ireland there is a thinking head and a con- 

 tinuous policy ; in England it is all go as you please, 

 with plenty of good work, but with waste on one side 

 and neglect on the other. The Board of Agriculture 

 cannot exercise any control; even the colleges whicii 

 it inspects defer but little to its opinion, because they 

 are primarily concerned in satisfying their immediate 

 paymasters, the county councils. As to the general 

 policy of a county in rural education the Board of 

 .Agriculture can say nothing, nor is its opinion and 

 advice ever sought in such matters. Probably the 

 Board of Agriculture was right in keeping closely 

 within its appointed function, but whether the result 

 were necessary or not, the fact remains that in practice 

 its opinion on agricultural education generally has 

 never carried much weight, nor have the county 

 councils obtained that help in dealing with rural 

 education which they might have expected. The 

 Board of Education, speaking with a knowledge of 

 what can and cannot be done in teaching, might have 

 saved the country from a good many experiments 

 which were not only expensive failures in themselves, 

 but which left behind a feeling of soreness and dis- 

 taste for any further meddling with the education of 

 the farmer. 



It is too late now to dispossess the county councils 

 of the very large measure of initiative and control over 

 rural education which they obtained as a result of the 

 Technical Instruction Act, but the situation was really 

 vitally changed by the Education .Act of 1902, which 

 imposed on every council tlie duty of considering all 

 the educational needs of its oivn area. Supposing any 

 county is failing to carry out this duty (and there are 

 several which make no provision whatever for agri- 

 cultural education), it is the Board of Education which 

 will have to apply pressure, for the Board of Agri- 

 culture has no title to interfere. Thus the Board of 

 .Agriculture is really in an impasse as regards that part 

 of agricultural education which it has reserved for 

 itself, the higher technical form ; it can aid an 

 established college, but it cannot exercise the least 

 influence on the many counties which neither possess 

 nor share in one of these colleges, nor can it do any- 

 thing to fill up the blank spaces on the map showing 

 its spheres of influence which it occasionally exhibits 

 when agricultural education is under discussion. 



While higher education in agriculture might thus 

 most properly be handed over to the Board of Educa- 

 tion, it would never do to allow the Board of 

 .Agriculture to lose all contact with the colleges, which 

 should be all acting as intelligence departments, both 

 collecting and diffusing information on its behalf. 

 The Board of Agriculture has another function at 

 present very imperfectly performed — that of being an 

 advisory and investigating agency for the working 

 farmer. Day by day the Board is addressed for in- 

 formation about crops, manures, injurious insects, 

 diseased plants, and so forth ; it possesses no scientific 

 staff to deal with such matters; above all, it has no 

 mechanism for investigation ; when a new problem 

 comes along some member of the staff either tries to 

 look it up in a text-book or a correspondent is called 

 upon for an opinion. 



The way the Board of Agriculture has dealt with 

 some of the diseases which have sprung up of late 

 years would be ludicrous had they not turned out so 

 tragic to some of the farmers concerned, and this has 

 been purely the fault of a system which calls upon the 



