May 4, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



427 



collegiate instruction. They mistrust it, and do not 

 think that the knowledge gained at such colleges will 

 compensate for the time required in gaining it. I will 

 not say that an agricultural college might not be of great 

 value to a farmer, but I will say this much — that no 

 agricultural professor can compete with a thoroughly 

 typical, well-informed, and successful farmer in know- 

 ledge of the art. There are two, or more, ways of look- 

 ing at this question. If you wish to make a man a good 

 and successful farmer, he cannot obtain the necessary 

 knowledge so well as among farmers.. If you want 

 him to rise out of his class — to be able to talk, to make 

 speeches, to discuss points, and attain a certain reputa- 

 tion as a talker and writer, whereby he may advance 

 his own ends — then, I grant that a college training will 

 greatly assist him. It is, however, open to doubt whether 

 it will enable him to fatten a bullock, to grow a crop, or 

 to make his farm pay better. It must, however, be 

 allowed that the man who can arrange and express his 

 ideas is, in these days, much more likely to push his 

 way ; and, therefore, a college training may be of the 

 utmost use to a young man, and its sequel may easily be 

 an improved social and professional position. Such a 

 result is,however,only for the few. I have been connected 

 with agricultural colleges for twenty -five years, and can 

 testify to the exceedingly small number of men — not, I 

 am convinced, one in five hundred — who climb the ladder 

 of fame by taking advantage of the opportunities afforded 

 of scientific knowledge in connection with agriculture. 

 We are, therefore, thrown back upon the usual practical 

 result that the good practical farmer grows as good crops, 

 fattens as much beef and mutton, and arrives at as good 

 general results, as the man who has enjoyed all the 

 advantages of scientific instruction. 



Travelling Instructors. 

 For the benefit of those actually engaged in dairy 

 farming, the system of travelling instructors is well 

 worthy of attention. The agent to the Duke of Portland 

 (Mr. Turner) stated that at the great Kilmarnock Show 

 in 1884, previous to their engaging Mr. Drummond, the 

 itinerant lecturer, Ayrshire cheese-makers only secured 

 J[^^ in prizes in the open classes. The next year, the 

 first in which instruction was given, they secured ^45 ; 

 in 1886, £-]6; and in 1887, ;^i56. The Highland 

 Agricultural Society gives an annual grant to different 

 counties for this purpose, and the results have been 

 most satisfactory. Instruction of this kind given on the 

 spot, and with due consideration to the peculiarities of 

 the district, and even the particular farm where it is im- 

 parted, is no doubt of the greatest possible practical 

 value, and is much better than instruction given at a 

 dairy school at a distance, where the apparatus and 

 fittings will be likely to err on the side of being too 

 perfect. Professor Carroll, of Glasnevin, Dublin, him- 

 self assured me that the too elaborate nature of the 

 dairies and fittings at model dairies had proved a 

 hindrance rather than a help. 



The Lower Agricultural Education (the Bailiff and 

 Labourer'). 

 Under this heading we have to consider the case of the 

 labourer, including the bailiff, because the best bailiff is 

 the labourer of extra intelligence who, by his ability and 

 force of character, rises into the position of a bailiff. 

 Good men of this class are very scarce indeed, and any 

 suggestion which would tend towards the increase of 



their numbers will be welcome. The adoption of a 

 system of general education throughout the country, such 

 as is now happily in existence, will doubtless bear fruit 

 in this direction, and it is a great question whether any 

 better course can be recommended than that of sound 

 education in the " three R's," followed up by years of 

 practice in all the details of farm work. I would further 

 suggest that the principles upon which agricultural prac- 

 tices are based should be taught in all rural schools, in- 

 stead of far-fetched information upon subjects entirely 

 beyond the entourage of the pupils. 



The following is a quotation from a paper by Professor 

 Fream, read before the British Association last Septem- 

 ber, upon proven tible losses in agriculture : — 



" The village school affo rds an admirable means where- 

 by much useful instruction might be imparted to country 

 lads, to their immediate intellectual benefit and to their 

 subsequent welfare. For instance, attractive object- 

 lessons in botany and entomology might be made the 

 means of familiarising boys with the habits and life 

 histories of farm pests, and would foster in them the 

 practice of independent observation, so that in years to 

 come for each pair of eyes now at work there might be 

 thousands. It surely would not be difficult to interest 

 an intelligent village boy in the natural history of wire- 

 worms and leather-jackets, of turnip ' flies ' and 

 sawflies, of birds and insects which help the farmer, 

 and of those which injure him, of the good grasses and 

 the bad, and of notorious weeds and parasites. Yet, 

 whilst the school wall is adorned with pictures of the 

 tiger and the elephant of the Indian jungle, there are none 

 showing the metamorphosis ot a click beetle, or the 

 structure of a grass. The boy may be taught to draw a 

 map of the unstable frontiers of the south-east of Europe, 

 which are hundreds of miles away, but he is never 

 taught to seek out the ergot which infests the grasses, or 

 to destroy the chrysalids which hang upon the hedge- 

 rows, or to recognise the plants of the meadow close to 

 his cottage door. Knowledge such as this might become 

 of much use to him, and render him a valuable and de- 

 sirable farm-servant in after years ; but it is kept from 

 him, and he grows up stolid and indolent, because during 

 the most impressionable years of his life our system of 

 education fails to interest and instruct him in matters 

 which will be of the greatest practical importance to him, 

 and most intimately associated with his future labours." 



My own experience is, that progress is checked by the 

 stolid opposition of labourers to the introduction of any- 

 thing out of their usual beat, whether in the employment 

 of new implements, the introducing new methods of 

 feeding animals, improved processes in hay-making, and 

 in many other ways. Good practical instruction at the 

 village school might, perhaps, encourage a more en- 

 lightened state of mind upon these subjects. 



General Conclusions as to State-aided Agricultural 

 Education. 



Summarising the results of experience gained in various 

 countries, it is evident that any attempt on the part of the 

 State to create a demand for technical instruction on the 

 part of farmers, has met with very partial success. 

 Neither must we forget that all the State-aided agricul- 

 tural schools form a part of a system of protection and 

 artificial fostering of industries. 



Finally, I protest against the founding of State-aided 

 agricultural colleges, for reasons given in the earlier 

 sections of this paper. I protest against hunters for 



