February, 1912.] 



145 



Education. 



graduates who are sent out to gain the 

 confidence of the farmer, to advise where 

 possible on agricultural matters, and, 

 above all, to bring the farmer into touch 

 with the college. But the college is 

 only part of a larger scheme. The 

 Government of Ontario has a definite 

 agricultural policy briefly set out in the 

 report, into wnich we need not enter, 

 except to note that the college is the 

 centre for teaching, experiment, and 

 constructive ideas. " From Guelph go 

 forth to the country the trained farmer, 

 the trained rural teacher, and the 

 trained housewife." The college, how- 

 ever, is in no bondage to its official 

 position, nor does its connection with 

 University of Toronto give it any airs 

 of superiority or cold academic aloof- 

 ness ; it is closely in touch with its 

 province by countless personal ties and 

 shows a lively and vigorous sense of its 

 responsibility. 



With local modifications the same 

 remarks apply to all the other colleges 

 visited. In all cases the college is the 

 centre of agricultural life for its district, 

 and its staff is primarily concerned with 

 the improvement of local rural life. 



Why is it that the Canadian and 

 American colleges have succeeded so 

 well, whilst the English colleges, what- 

 ever else they have achieved, have 

 certainly not become the centre of rural 

 life in the country? Partly, the deput- 

 ation consider, because the English 

 farmer is already highly competent and 

 can only be helped by very able special- 

 ists. He has behind him a long tradi- 

 tion, and need look to no one for advice ; 

 in Canada and the States, on the other 

 hand, the farmer has usually no tradi- 

 tion and must perforce turn to some 

 honest, disinterested source for infor- 

 mation ; naturally he goes to the college. 

 In England matters have sometimes been 

 made worse by the appointment of 

 rather poor agricultural instructors and 

 by the fact that education is associated 

 in the farmer's mind with heavy county 

 rates. 



Thus the success of the Canadian 

 and American colleges, as compared 

 with that of the English colleges, 

 is partly to be attributed to differ- 

 ences in local conditions, and the deputa- 

 tion failed to discover a system that they 

 could transplant here with any hope of 

 success. They learnt much, however, 

 and they applied the experience gained 

 to their own problem at Reading and 

 drew up a scheme for a complete agricul- 

 tural department. Into the details of 

 19 



the scheme we need not enter ; the prin- 

 ciples on which it is based, however, 

 seem to us to be very sound. First and 

 foremost they consider that the staff 

 must becompetent : " In making any new 

 appointment of major rank it is impos- 

 sible to exaggerate the importance of 

 securing a first-class man . , . No propo- 

 sition receives more lip-homage in educa- 

 tional circles, and perhaps none is more 

 frequently flouted in practice." That a 

 university agricultural department staf- 

 fed in this way would be eminently 

 successful is beyond dispute, and all 

 interested in agricultural education will 

 hope that Reading will have the means 

 and the courage to go ahead. For as the 

 deputation found out, specialisation is 

 very necessary in agricultural work ; 

 indeed, they might have quoted the pre- 

 cisely parallel case of medicine. No col- 

 lege would think of setting up a professor 

 of medical knowledge and one or two 

 assistants as a medical school. Yet most 

 colleges think the arrangement does 

 sufficiently well for agriculture ; only one 

 agricultural department has more than 

 one professorship; indeed, at one of our 

 oldest universities even the examiner- 

 ships are not specialised, one and the 

 same person being required to examine 

 both in agricultural botany and agricul- 

 tural chemistry ! * 



Passing now to the memorandum on 

 the principles and methods of rural edu- 

 cation issued by the Board of Education, 

 it is quite evident that a serious effort is 

 beiug made to bring the education of the 

 country school into some sort of relation- 

 ship to the conditions of country life. 

 But in reading through it we are not 

 convinced that the Board has grasped 

 the fundamental difference between the 

 conditions of life, and even the outlook 

 upon life, in the country and in the town. 

 The reader instinctively feels that no 

 new method is being evolved, but the 

 old system (which has not been a cons- 

 picuous success in the rural district) is 

 simply making a second appearance in a 

 dress with some agricultural trimmings. 

 The organiser who is responsible for 

 giving rural significance to the school is 

 at present "primarily an expert in agri- 

 culture in the narrower sense, and it will 

 probably always be desirable that this 

 should be the case." But why ? Why 

 not men who primarily possess insight 

 and imagination, who can get to the 

 essentials of the problem, and devise 

 methods of dealing with it? However, 

 teachers and country authorities alike 

 realise its importance, and we may be 

 closer than we think to the new rural 

 education. 



