March 25, 1909] 



NA TURE 



AGRICULTUKAL EDUCATION. 



THERE is abundant evidence that the report of 

 the Departmental Committee on Agricuhural 

 Education is receiving the attention it deserves. The 

 Farmers' Club has issued a memorandum on the 

 subject, and we learn from the Times of March i 

 that the County Councils Association proposes to 

 discuss various matters arising out of the report at 

 its conference at the end of this month. The Central 

 and Associated Chambers of .Agriculture are also in- 

 teresting themselves in the matter. On March 9 a de- 

 putation waited on the President of the Board of Edu- 

 cation and the President of the Board of Agriculture 

 for the purpose of directing attention to the need for 

 reform in agricultural education. 



It will be useful to recall the conclusions and 

 recommendations of the report. The Committee 

 considers that a satisfactory foundation has been laid 

 for a national system of agricultural education, 

 although much remains to be done in the develop- 

 ment of details. In particular the facilities for lower- 

 grade agricultural instruction and for itinerant instruc- 

 tion are very inadequate. There is a shortage of 

 teachers and of experts for higher work, but it is 

 considered that existing institutions could make up 

 tlie deficiency if only they were better equipped. 

 Increased provision is needed for research work. 

 More money, in fact, is wanted all round. A system 

 of dual control is recommended. The Board of 

 Education should look after elementary and secondary 

 school instruction ; the Board of Agriculture should, 

 as now, deal with college and university instruction. 

 The Farmers' Club agrees with practically all 

 these conclusions, and its memorandum is a most 

 interesting document, showing, as it does, the value 

 set bv practical men on agricultural education. The 

 club would probably not claim to represent the whole 

 of the farming community, but it includes many of 

 the best men, and its views may be taken as identical 

 with those of the most enlightened agriculturists of 

 the day. Great stress is laid on the fact that more 

 money is wanted, and must be forthcoming. Winter 

 schools are asked for, where the sons of small farmers 

 mav attend for about three months, to leave better 

 equipped for their work. The schools must be staffed 

 bv the right sort of men. Itinerant instructors of 

 the right kind are needed to get hold of the little 

 farmer and show him where his methods can be 

 improved. Men are wanted to carry out research 

 work. In some of the existing schools and colleges 

 the standard of the teaching requires raising, but the 

 writers of the memorandum 



" cannot attempt to lay any blame on those responsible, 

 for they have made the best use of the small funds at their 

 disposal, and cut their cloth in accordance with their 

 means. The salaries offered are in many cases almost an 

 insult to an educated man, and it is frequently found that 

 no sooner has an instructor settled down in a college, 

 institute, or county than he is offered a better post 

 (generally abroad), and someone else has to be found at 

 the same miserable salary with like results." 



All this is beyond dispute. The real difficulty is 

 the lack of men. The agricultural colleges ought 

 to be able to supply all the men needed, but t.hey 

 do not, and no one will deny that the committee of 

 the Farmers' Club has discovered the correct reason. 

 There is small inducement to go on to the teaching 

 staff of the ordinary agricultural college, and still less 

 to remain there. The result is a frequent change and 

 loss of the best men, which is unsatisfactory now and 

 unpromising for the future. Meanwhile, there are 

 not enough of the right men either for the home or 

 the colonial appointments. One of the best of the 

 colonial agricultural departments has been staffed 



NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



in part by Americans, because competent men were 

 not available here ; and it is much to be feared that 

 some who have gone out to colonial appointments 

 as the best we could send have not given a particu- 

 larlv satisfactory impression. This is a subject which 

 demands very serious consideration. 



The contentious part of the report is that relating 

 to the control of agricultural education in the 

 various technical schools and colleges which deal 

 with agriculture alone. The Departmental Com- 

 mittee favours a dual control, and the Farmers' 

 Club agrees. It has been said that the Board 

 of Education desires to control the whole system 

 from start to finish. We gather from the Times that 

 this question will be dealt with at length by the County 

 Councils Association Conference. Undoubtedly, the 

 ideal arrangement is to have the whole system under 

 one Board, properlv coordinated, with no break any- 

 where from the elementary school to the agricultural 

 college of university rank. But the fact must be 

 recognised that the Board of Agriculture is, and has 

 been for some vears, in possession of the field, and it 

 has, on the whole, the confidence of the farming com- 

 munitv, some of its officials being actually known to 

 the farmers. The Board of Education, on the other 

 hand, is not in touch with them, and until a few 

 vears ago had no official of agricultural standing. 

 The Farmers' Club fears that under the Board of 

 Education agricultural education would never be more 

 than a " side show," and this they most emphatically 

 do not want. Of course, if the Board of Education 

 were prepared to do the big thing, it would no doubt 

 be best for it to take entire control, but if not, the 

 dual arrangement suggested certainly seems more 

 satisfactQfy. In any case only a few institutions are 

 concerned ; the universities and university colleges 

 with chairs of agriculture are, and should remain, 

 outside the sphere of action of either Board, except 

 in so far as they accept grants for the upkeep of the 

 department or farm. It is gratifying to learn, from the 

 replies given to the deputation of March 9, that the 

 two Boards are considering means by which they can 

 have better organisation, and each is prepared to 

 cooperate heartily with the other in finding the solu- 

 tion of the difficulty. 



THE AIR OF COTTON MILLS.^ 



THE latest report on the subject of humidity and 

 ventilation in cotton mills adds considerably to 

 our knowledge of this difficult question, complicated 

 as it has become since about 1870 by the introduction 

 of artificial humidity by means of " steaming." 

 Previous reports have shown that the ventilation of 

 most sheds was far from satisfactory, and that the 

 health of the workers suffered from excessive steam- 

 ing. As a result an Act was passed in 190 1 which 

 prescribed, among other things, the amount of fresh 

 air to be supplied per hour for every person employed, 

 the amount of humidity permitted, and that the 

 amount of carbon dioxide should not exceed nine 

 volumes in 10,000 of air. Experiments carried on in 

 1906 show that the relative humidity is highest in the 

 morning (79 and 80), and diminishes as the day ad- 

 vances, falling to 70 and 71, also that the common 

 supposition that the relative humidity inside the shed 

 is less than that outside is true only for the winter 

 months. 



The table of humidity in the Act of 1901 begins at a 

 wet-bulb temperature of 35° P., and ends with a wet- 

 bulb temperature of 91° F. ; but weaving cannot be 

 carried on at the lower temperature, and the operatives 

 cannot endure the higher temperature. There is a 



1 Report of the Departmental Committee on Humidity and Ventilation in 

 Cotton Weaving Sheds. (London : Wyman and Sons, Ltd.) 



