546 



NATURE 



[September 15, 1910 



the greatest of the technical institutions with the univer- 

 sities within the area of which they have emerged. The 

 danger in the process of amalgamation is that it may be 

 premature. It may come about l>efore the realisation of 

 what each institution in its own way, and in its own time, 

 has had to contribute to national problems, and before it 

 has been fully recognised that the annexation of a technical 

 school is not merely the end of a rival, but the beginning 

 of a new public responsibility, and that in the result the 

 vitality and, if you like, the harsh industrialism and 

 •commercialism of the technical institution may be too much 

 submerged by "academic control." 



The evidence placed at my disposal shows, on the whole, 

 a tone of great hopefulness. The hopefulness of tone to 

 which I have referred is common. It is displayed by the 

 newest of the large municipal technical institutions in the 

 heart of a great industrial centre, and by some of our 

 ■oldest universities. It is becoming evident that the institu- 

 tions are recognising that, however much the market, in 

 its quest after cheapness, has failed to distinguish the real 

 from the spurious article, the institutions have been 

 without much blame for placing inefficient machines on the 

 market. An eminent professor of chemistry tells me that 

 his whole " professional life is strewn with examples of 

 the unwillingness of industry and commerce, the State, and 

 municipal authorities of this country to take advantage of 

 the services of young men who have received the highest 

 technical training as chemists." But, he adds, " there is 

 a tolerably rapid improvement taking place," and " we 

 who are urging the importance of employing these highly 

 trained young men have to remember that there has been a 

 great lot of poor stuff turned out from the universities and 

 technical colleges, and that the British manufacturer has a 

 good deal to say in his own defence." 



Agriculture and Allied Industries. 



It is in connection with the agricultural colleges that 

 there appears to be the least difficulty in showing 

 that the students have found posts in agriculture 

 ■or in allied industries. The case of agriculture 

 may be somewhat exceptional. There has been so much 

 development in this industry in recent years that there was 

 bound to be a considerable demand for trained men. 

 Moreover, many of the young men who have undergone a 

 course of training in agriculture have done so in order to 

 fit themselves for farming, or otherwise dealing with 

 land as land agents or farm managers, on their own 

 account. Further, it has for a fair number of years now 

 been obvious that study in the agricultural colleges had to 

 be combined with practice on the farm. The agricultural 

 colleges also report that there is a considerable demand for 

 their students in various branches of foreign and colonial 

 land development work, such as tea, coffee, cotton, and 

 rubber planting, management and e.xtension of irrigation 

 •colonies, forestry, stock farming, and so on. A certain 

 number of students trained at agricultural colleges are in 

 demand for commercial undertakings in businesses as- 

 sociated with agriculture. For example, the German 

 Potash Syndicate has a number of men representing their 

 interests in various parts of the world who were educated 

 at one of our oldest agricultural colleges, and the Per- 

 manent Nitrate Committee and the Sulphate of Ammonia 

 ■Committee have also appointed agents or representatives 

 w'ho have gone through a similar course of training. The 

 principal of the college attributes this preference for men 

 who have received a college education instead of those who 

 have had a business training only to the fact that the work 

 undertaken by these representatives combines a large 

 propagandist element with ordinary business management. 



In Ireland the State directly organises the application of 

 scientific education and of scientific knowledge to agri- 

 culture and allied industries. The Oepartmcntof Agricul- 

 ture and the county committees alone take advantage of 

 young men who have received the highest technical training 

 in agriculture. Since iqoj some sixty or seventy men 

 have passed through the faculty of agriculture in the Royal 

 College of Science, and all have been employed by the 

 department or by the county committees. Farmers in 

 Ireland operate on too small a scale to warrant them in 

 employing experts as is done by large industrial concerns. 

 Those who want expert assistance can get it through the 

 ■county committees, or, for special work, from the depart- 

 NO. 2133, VOL. 84] 



ment. In this way the faculty of agriculture is exerting a 

 strong influence on agricultural practice. Leadmg 

 farmers — those of the best education — make most use ot 

 the expert, and the smaller men follow them. In this way 

 the influence of the Royal College of Science is far greater 

 than is usually supposed to be the case. The college 

 course fits men to take up the important positions of 

 itinerant and special instructors, and the w'hole course has 

 been designed specially for the one purpose. Moreover, th.^ 

 instructor and expert, after leaving college, are kept in 

 touch with the work of the college and with that of 

 instructors in other counties than their own or those 

 adjacent. If the college taught, so to speak, in the air, 

 and was not, as it is, part and parcel of a great organised 

 system, it would do little good. No students ot agri- 

 culture attend except those selected to become teachers and 

 experts under the department and the local authorities. 

 For such teachers and experts there is always a demand, 

 since some of those who have been trained and who have 

 worked as experts for a time leave — some to business, 

 others go abroad to take up work as teachers or experts in 

 the colonies. 



In addition to this main work, the college trains experts 

 in forestry, horticulture, £.nd creamery management, and 

 in these branches of Irish industry the trained men perform 

 the same functions towards these industries as the agri- 

 cultural expert does to agriculture proper. While no one 

 who intends to become a farmer takes the Royal College 

 of Science course — since this last would be out of all pro- 

 portion to the capital invested in even the larger farms ••^ 

 Ireland — quite a number now attend shorter and less 

 e.xpensive courses at the Albert Agricultural College and 

 elsewhere. There are thus other channels through which 

 the higher technical training at the Royal College reaches 

 those engaged in the agricultural industry, since these 

 local colleges, stations, and winter schools are staffed by 

 Royal College men \v;ho keep in touch with the central 

 institution. The lesson which Ireland has to teach is that 

 the faculty of agriculture in the Royal College of Science 

 is part of a great organisation directly serving the interests 

 of the agricultural industry, and not an independent institu- 

 tion pursuing knowledge for its own sake, or educating 

 students without certainty of their profitable employment. 



Engifieering. 



The evidence from the engineering colleges and institu 

 tions is also, on the whole, satisfactory. Here and there 

 may be found somewhat doleful notes to the' effect that the 

 large majority of State departments and local authorities do 

 not lay themselves out to take advantage of technically 

 trained men, and in one case a view that has much popular 

 currency has been put to me in fairly strong terms. It is 

 to the effect that employers, especially those who have not 

 very large and important undertakings, but who, neverthe- 

 less, would have their businesses improved by securing 

 technically trained men, have an ignorant prejudice against 

 such assistance. It is suggested as the possible explana- 

 tion of their attitude that the employers fear that if they 

 engaged men of greater attainments than themselves, they 

 would simply be raising up possible opponents in their own 

 line of business. There may be much truth in this view, 

 which does not, of course, apply to first-class firms. But 

 there is, I think, another worth full consideration : that 

 the size of the business concern (the amount of capital 

 sunk in it) has much to do with the employer's attitude. 

 The employer does not possess the faith that will enable 

 him to risk the addition of another salary to his working 

 expenses ; and no one, without a fair trial, is able to give 

 him the mathematical demonstration which he seeks thai 

 the salary might often be saved merely out of the waste of 

 materials which exists owing to the absence of scientific 

 knowledge on the part of his men of the materials they 

 are handling, and to their having to feel their way b" 

 experiments that are more in the nature of guesses. .Such 

 firms will be converted only by the example of others. 



There is abundant evidence, however, that there is much 

 less prejudice than formerly ; that there is a growing 

 tendency on the part of .State and municipal authorities to 

 secure for their services engineers who have received the 

 highest training; and that this attitude is especially true 

 of certain industries, the success of which depends abso- 

 luteh' upon higlth' competent, trained scientific experts, as, 



