274 



Rural Economy at Oxford. 



[JUNE, 



time.* Temple Farm is the property of Magdalen College, 

 and consists of about 120 acres of arable, including some 

 that looks to be heavy and unpromising, and upwards of 200 

 acres of grass, of which about one hundred are kept for hay. 

 There is a dairy herd of about 25 Shorthorn cows, for which 

 it is claimed that they are among the most productive on 

 the books of the Oxfordshire Milk Recording Society, and 

 practical demonstrations are in the good hands of Colonel W. 

 R. Peel, M.A., D.S.O. Those who follow Colonel Peel's sound 

 and attractive lectures are safe, experto crede, to have their 

 attention directed to all the salient points of practical farming. 

 The farm accounts are strictly kept. They are analysed, and 

 income and expenditure are apportioned to their proper 

 departments. The farm enjoys a special advantage from the 

 proximity of the Oxford Steam Plough Company, of which 

 the depot is only a mile away. 



Perhaps it is a little late in this paper to point out that the 

 University of Oxford now gives a degree in agriculture, the 

 B.i\., which may be taken " with distinction." The student 

 must keep his nine terms and join a College or the Non- 

 collegiate body. He must pass Responsions and follow the 

 regular course of examination towards a degree, but begins his 

 study of Agriculture from the day he enters into residence. 

 It is unnecessary to deal here with these examinations further 

 than to point out that those who succeed in satisfying the 

 examiners will have a competent knowledge of the economics 

 and history of agricultural production, distribution, organisa- 

 tion, farm and estate management, and agricultural, law, while 

 they may add to it elementary physics, chemistry, zoology and 

 botany. To meet all fees and to maintain him.self at Oxford it is 

 estimated that the present cost to a student is abouf ;£25o a year. 



This effort to bring agricultural education into line with the 

 general tutorial system of Oxford, this grant of a degree in 

 agriciilture which, it is well to remember, is the highest of its kind 

 in England, shows that Oxford, for all its aloofness from the 

 stress and turmoil of normal times, is in close touch with the 

 needs that these times have brought to birth. Some of us may, 

 perhaps, be pardoned for believing that this stone which the 

 builders have so long rejected may become, if not the headstone 

 of the comer, at least one of the really essential supports of the 

 greatest educational institution our civilisation has yet evolved. 

 The organisers of the movement are no mere dreamers. Their 



* " I know what white, what purple fritillaries 

 The grassy harvest of the meadow fields 

 Above by Ensham, down by Sandford, yields, 

 And what sedged brooks are Thames's tributaries." 



Thyrsis. 



