Education . 



240 



practical instruction in the rudiments of agriculture, horticulture and aboricul. 

 ture. He must endeavour to make it into a model kitchen garden, containing 

 the best varieties of vegetable and fruit trees." 



Practical lessons both in class and in the gardens — on flowers, herbs, 

 fruit trees, useful farm birds, and the common agricultural implements— are given 

 at regular periods. The expenditure of the Department of Agriculture exceeds 

 ,£100,000 per annum. 



England. 



England has not been prominent in forwarding agricultural education 

 with anything like the organisation and energy displayed by other countries 

 in the past; of late, however, a marked change has* swept throughout the 

 rural counties. In 1887 the English Government set aside £5,000 to be distri 

 buted among the agricultural and dairying schools. 



The Board of Agriculture distributes grants to Universities, Collegiate 

 and other institutions engaged in teaching agriculture and allied subjects. It 

 inspects educatioual and experimental work. It conducts experiments. It pub- 

 lishes a monthly Journal and leaflets to farmers. The County Councils are 

 awakening to the importance of this work, and now some twenty-six 

 institutions are engaged in teaching agriculture, and something like £100,000 is 

 expanded annually in England on agricultural education and research work. No effort 

 has been made yet to organise systems such as exist in Wurtemberg, France, 

 Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Italy, United States, and Canada. 



A Chair of Agriculture was founded in 1790 at the University of Edinburgh, 

 but Scotland has always been to the fore both in education and agriculture. 

 The Chair of Rural Economy, established at Oxford by Sibthorp in the 

 eighteenth century, has not been noted for its agricultural activity. The Royal 

 Agricultural College of Cirencester was established by private enterprise in 1845> 

 and others followed. 



The most noted of all efforts to establish agriculture on a scientific basis 

 was the world-renowned experiment station at Rothamsted, established by Sir 

 John Lawes. In 18D9 a Chair of Agriculture was established at Cambridge, and 

 a well-organised Department of Agriculture. The subject is also taught at the 

 Universities of North Wales and Durham. 



Ireland. 



The Commissioners of National Education in Ireland make a special feature 

 of their efforts to teach agriculture in all rural National schools. Numbers of 

 these schools have school farms, gardens, and live stock. Rural teachers go into 

 training in practical agriculture in residence at the Albert Institution, Glasnevin, 

 near Dublin, for six weeks, where they qualifiy for certificates to earn special 

 fees for practical agricultural instruction to pupils. Teachers are not only given 

 this training free, but are allowed travelling expenses to and from the Institute 

 from any part of Ireland. No teacher is permitted to give tuition in agri- 

 culture unless he has been trained and possesses a certificate of competency. 



Two agricultural colleges are maintained, one at Glasnevin, Dublin, and 

 one at Cork, where a sound system of agricultural training is provided. Itinerant 

 dairy instruction is organised throughout the dairying centres.— Agricultural 

 Gazette of Nevj South Wales. 



(To be concluded.) 



