THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND 



Within the last twenty years there has been a great extension 

 in the facihties for agricultural education in England and 

 Wales, and at the present time the colleges, schools, and courses 

 of lectures which afford opportunities to the farming com- 

 munity for obtaining scientific and technical instruction are 

 numerous and well adapted to modern requirements. 



The need for an efficient system of agricultural instruction 

 began to be generally recognized in 1887, and the Departmental 

 Committee appointed to enquire into the subject reported that 

 " there is clear proof of great loss to the country through a want 

 of a widespread knowledge of the most effective modes of dairy 

 practice and of certain other agricultural operations." At that 

 time the provision for agricultural education of any sort was 

 extremely scanty, and the independent colleges at Cirencester, 

 Downton, Aspatria, and Hollesley Bay seem to have been the 

 only centres at which general instruction in agriculture was 

 given in England, and none of these were of a type altogether 

 suitable for the ordinary tenant farmer. 



The immediate result of the Committee's report was that 

 in 1888 Parliament voted a sum of ^5,000 to be distributed in 

 the form of direct grants to Agricultural and Dairy Schools, 

 and for assistance in agricultural experiments. Before the 

 stimulus thus afforded had time to take much effect, the 

 passing of the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act of 

 1890 introduced a new and most important factor into the 



Vol. XIII. No. II, 



FEBRUARY, 1907. 



AND WALES. 



F F F 



