1908.] Agricultural Education. 



359 



agricultural education, afforded by universities, university 

 and agricultural colleges, the Committee are satisfied that the 

 addition of a few institutions, so located as to supply the 

 needs of one or two districts which at the present time have no 

 agricultural college, would furnish the country with a sufficient 

 number of collegiate centres. 



Lower Grade Education. — The facilities for agricultural in- 

 struction of a lower grade are, however, considered to be un- 

 organised, unsystematic, and wholly inadequate. Very few 

 institutions giving instruction of this grade exist, and the Com- 

 mittee consider that their number must be materially increased. 

 The type of institution recommended is the winter agricultural 

 school, which would aim at providing courses of study, during 

 the winter months, for lads of from seventeen to twenty, who 

 have already gained some practical acquaintance with agricul- 

 ture or horticulture. Until such schools are available, the 

 formation of local winter classes should be encouraged. 

 Short winter courses at colleges also provide instruction 

 for the class that would attend the winter schools, and 

 it is considered that instruction of this type would be welcomed 

 if generally available. 



A number of suggestions are also made as regards instruction 

 in the different branches of agriculture, and as to the supply 

 of teachers and instructors. 



County Agricultural Advisers. — The Committee suggest that 

 in each area of the size of an average county there should be a 

 resident agricultural adviser, to convey information and in- 

 struction to the farmers, to supervise field experiments, to 

 give courses of lectures on the subject of such experiments 

 and on matters of agricultural interest, and to conduct special 

 classes. He might act as director of agricultural instruction, 

 and should consequently be in close touch with, and responsible 

 for, the work of other instructors in subjects such as dairying, 

 poultry-keeping, or horticulture. At the same time he should 

 be attached to, and work in association with, a college or place 

 of higher instruction acting for a group of counties. 



Itinerant Teachers. — The Committee are strongly of opinion 

 that itinerant instructors should play an important part in the 

 educational system of Great Britain. If well-qualified men 

 were obtained for these positions, farmers — especially small . 



