191 1.] Instructors in Agricultural Subjects. 83? 



services of a single staff should be made available for groups 

 of contiguous counties ; as to the training and qualifications 

 which such instructors should possess in order to enable them 

 to secure the confidence of agriculturists ; and as to the manner 

 in which the staff should be composed for each county or 

 group of counties in England and Wales in view of the 

 different branches of rural industry followed in each locality." 



The Report in the first place reviews the position of the 

 different counties in this respect, and points out that the 

 great majority of counties have some separate staff of their 

 own, and that the only grouping of counties is for the purpose 

 of establishing or assisting to maintain a joint college or 

 institute or (more often) arises out of association with such 

 a centre for agricultural education and research. In the case 

 of certain counties (e.g., Devon and Cornwall), no centre at 

 present exists with which they could conveniently be asso- 

 ciated. The independent staff of the county is often supple- 

 mented, and their work often supervised, by the staff of the 

 centre with which the county is in association. It must be 

 remembered, however, that hitherto there has been no 

 adequate inducement to counties to combine for the purpose 

 of maintaining an efficient staff, and that if a sufficient grant 

 were given by the Government for this purpose considerable 

 changes might be made in smaller counties where the salaries 

 at present offered are insufficient to secure first-rate men. In 

 all the larger counties not already in combination it would 

 probably still be found desirable for each county to have an 

 efficient staff of its own for the organisation of agricultural 

 work not carried on at or in connection with the centre. 



The Conference considers that it may be laid down as a 

 general principle that every county either should be associated, 

 in combination with other counties, with an efficient centre, 

 or, if not in combination, should have a minimum efficient 

 staff of its own. It is thought desirable, especially in view of 

 the difficulty of obtaining qualified teachers and organisers, to 

 concentrate higher agricultural education, as far as possible, 

 in a few really efficient centres. Any County Council not 

 associated with an efficient centre which finds itself unable or 

 unwilling to establish a minimum staff of its own should 

 associate itself with the Council of an adjoining county. 



