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Agricultural Eesearch and Education. 



[Nov., 



summer, there would be short courses near their homes for 

 daughters of farmers and farm workers, who would learn 

 all about dairying, poultry rearing, the bottling of fruit, cooking 

 and other subjects which would prove of the greatest advantage 

 on the farm, so that the whole family would take an intelligent 

 and practical interest in the work of the farm. 



That was the idea of the Farm Institute, which it was hoped 

 would become the centre of agricultural intelligence for the 

 county: a place where every kind of help could be given, where 

 farmers could go for advice, where soils could be tested, feeding 

 stuffs and fertilisers analysed and their value ascertained, and 

 where information could be given on the combating of pests 

 and diseases. He felt sure the institutes would gradually obtain 

 the confidence of farmers and become of the greatest value to 

 those engaged in work on the land. 



Although it was as long ago as 1908 that a Departmental 

 Committee, presided over by Lord Keay, recommended that 

 there should be a Farm Institute in every county, or group of 

 two or three counties' the progress in this direction had been 

 slow, so that only four institutes had been established when the 

 War began. Since the War twelve more institute schemes had 

 been projected, but only six of them had got under way when 

 the economy axe fell, and the other six had to be abandoned 

 temporarily. 



When the Eepeal of Part I of the Corn Production Act was 

 passed and the Government was compelled by financial stress 

 to abandon the guaranteed prices, they were able to save about 

 £1,000,000 from the wreck, and that money was to be devoted 

 to agricultural education and research. Out of that money he 

 hoped to restart the six institute schemes that were abandoned, 

 and also to set on foot five or six more. In that event there 

 would be 24 or 25 Farm Institutes scattered about the country. 

 The results to British agriculture could not be put down in 

 black and white, but he felt certain they would be incalculable, 

 and that every penny spent, whether by the Government or by 

 enlightened County Councils like that of Northamptonshire, 

 would be money well spent, and that it would bring in a 

 handsome return. 



The session which is just commencing will see Farm Insti- 

 tutes at work in the following counties:— Cheshire, Cumberland 

 and Westmorland, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, North- 

 amptonshire, Somersetshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Carnarvon- 

 shire, Denbighshire and Monmouth. 



