360 



Agricultural Education. [august, 



farmers — would soon learn to go to them for advice. 

 Itinerant teachers, it is observed, have many more opportunities 

 than college lecturers of meeting those actually engaged in 

 cultivating the soil and thus, if possessed of knowledge, practical 

 skill, and the faculty of inspiring confidence, they should rapidly 

 influence the different branches of the industry. 



Farm Institutes. — For the purpose of maintaining teachers 

 at a high level of practical skill, the Committee think it essential 

 that they should be connected with some institution where 

 they would be in constant touch with practice. It is suggested, 

 therefore, that in those districts where there is no suitable 

 institution in which the county instructors could be associated, 

 farm institutes, having a farm and class-rooms attached, 

 should be established to serve as headquarters for the entire 

 itinerant staff working in the district. The farm should be 

 laid out so as to be typical of the district and should generally 

 aim at placing before farmers and gardeners an object-lesson 

 for guidance in their work. These institutes might be combined 

 with the winter schools, and the buildings could be utilized 

 for this purpose in the winter, and in the summer for the teach- 

 ing of dairying and other appropriate subjects. 



It is pointed out that the establishment of such institutes is 

 much to be desired in the interests of small holders, to whose 

 success they might largely contribute by providing information 

 and advice. The combination of the winter school and the 

 farm institute should first be attempted in those districts in 

 which holdings of small and medium size are most numerous. 



Research in relation to Education. — For the purpose of im- 

 proving and extending a knowledge of the application of science 

 to practice, and thus increasing the appreciation of education 

 by agriculturists, the Committee are of opinion that further 

 provision for research is urgently needed. The need is not so 

 much for new institutions as for a greater number of men, and 

 they recommend that before any further stations for research 

 are established, existing institutions should be enabled to increase 

 their staff of workers. It would be unwise to develop any 

 extensive system of providing instruction in agriculture without 

 at the same time providing for research, so as to lay the founda- 

 tion, which all experience has proved to- be necessary for a 

 successful result. 



