January, 1912.] 



58 



Miscellaneous. 



With the increasing attention paid to 

 agricultural education, moreover, direct 

 applications from agriculturists for ad- 

 vice are likely to become more numerous. 

 Experience in the past has shown that 

 the more the work of a College becomes 

 known to farmers, the more disposed 

 they are to consult the College Staff, 

 and if systematic arrangements for the 

 supply of trustworthy information are 

 made, consultations will become very 

 common. To gain the confidence of farm- 

 ers in this way it is necessary to con- 

 vince them that the College Staff is able 

 to advise not merely in regard to the 

 general principles of cultivation and 

 management which are within the 

 knowledge of skilled farmers, but as to 

 difficulties which lie outside ordinary 

 experience, and which may demand 

 exhaustive investigation and patient 

 research. 



Character of the Staff. 



The range of subjects on which advice 

 may be sought is very wide, and no 

 single institution can be expected to 

 provide specialists in all branches, but 

 provision should be made for the supply 

 of expert advice in those branches of 

 agriculture and its allied industries 

 which are of the greatest importance in 

 the area served by the College. For 

 this purpose the staff should be strength- 

 ened by the addition of officers who 

 will chiefly devote themselves to this 

 special type of work, but there would be 

 no objection to the utilisation of their 

 services to some extent in teaching, pro- 

 vided that other members of the staff 

 gave approximately the same amount of 

 time to advisory work. A certain elasti- 

 city in the staff would thus be secured 

 and a wider range of subjects covered. 



In this connection it must be remem- 

 bered that many inquiries on agricul- 

 tural subjects, especially those likely to 

 be made by the smaller or less experi- 

 enced cultivators as regards dairying, 

 poultry keeping, and gardening can 

 quite well be dealt with by the County 

 Staff, to whom they should be referred. 

 The object of the collegiate institutions 

 should be to deal with the more difficult 

 questions requiring special knowledge. 



Qualifications of the Staff. 

 The success of the scheme depends on 

 the selection of the right type of men. 

 The Governing Bodies of Institutions 

 should, therefore, be careful in recruiting 

 their staff to secure men who have 

 received a thorough scientific training, 

 and who will be capable of carrying our 

 investigations both in the laboratory 

 and in the field. They should be familiar 

 with the technique that may be necessary 



in dealing with their special branch, and 

 be capable of closely following the latest 

 developments in science both at home 

 and abroad. 



A9 explained above, it will be the duty 

 of the consultative staff to keep in close 

 touch with the Research Institutions, 

 and in considering the qualifications 

 required this factor should be borne in 

 mind. In many cases it is to this advi- 

 sory staff that the task will fall of first 

 attempting to put into practice the 

 results of investigations made at the 

 Research Institutions. 



On the other hand, men appointed for 

 this work either must have, or must be 

 prepared to acquire, a good working 

 knowledge of one or more branches of 

 agriculture, for in this way only can 

 they gain the confidenee of agriculturists 

 and be able to meet them on an equal 

 footing as regards the practical oper- 

 ations of the farm. With a good general 

 experience they should soon be able to 

 acquire a knowledge of local methods. 



Conditions of Grant. 

 1; Grants from this fund will only be 

 made to certain selected Institutions, 

 not exceeding twelve in number, in 

 England and Wales, the Governing 

 Bodies of which will be invited to submit 

 schemes to the Board on the general 

 lines indicated above. 



2. The grant in each case will be a 

 grant-in-aid only. It must be used for 

 the purpose of extending and developing 

 special advisory work, and not for 

 the purpose of lightening existing 

 expenditure. 



3. It will be open to any Institution 

 to employ members of its present staff 

 on this advisory work, but in that case 

 their places must be filled by fresh 

 appointments to the teaching staff. 



4. The Board will require to be satis- 

 fied that the men proposed to be em- 

 ployed on this work possess the necessary 

 qualifications, and that the salaries paid 

 them are adequate in the circumstances. 

 The men appointed should have given 

 promise of achieving distinction in 

 scientific work, and be such as might be 

 expected to attain to the higher posts 

 at Universities and University Colleges 

 if they adopted teaching as a profession. 

 To secure men of this type, who have 

 also had subsequent practical experience, 

 it will be necessary to offer adequate 

 salaries, though the actual amount may 

 vary according to age and experience. 

 The Board will be prepared from time 

 to time to consider proposals for an 

 increase in the grant to meet such incre- 

 ments of salary as may become necessary 



