JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



then, if their promise continues, for a second year, with all the benefits 

 of scientific training and scientific education, as has already been 

 admirably explained. The system of practical education begins in 

 September next with a batch of five boys, and wo shall all desire to 

 congratulate the Surrey County Council and the Royal Horticultural 

 Society on this plan, which will give wise, practical training in every 

 branch of horticulture. We are met to-day amid many historical associa- 

 tions. Within two miles of us is Ockham, from which village there i 

 went forth, more than five hundred years ago, a youth, William of Ockham, 

 who was destined to become one of the three greatest philosophers of 

 medieval Europe. He must have passed near this place as he journeyed 

 from his home to Oxford. English thought and letters have always 

 been recruited by men of genius born in humblo homes. For centuries 

 much has been done, though not in a very systematic way, to provide 

 opportunities by means of which such boys may obtain the education 

 appropriate to their powers. One of the distinctive marks of the edu- 

 cational movement which has done so much for England during the 

 last thirty years has been the development of the scholarship system, 

 the purpose of which is to give effective access to all callings and pro- 

 fessions. Our scholarship system in England, however, has been far 

 too exclusively directed to the recruiting of the literary callings. Wo 

 now need a further development of the scholarship system to enable 

 boys to got the training needed for a favourable start in skilled callings. 

 The scholarships offered by the Surrey County Council and the Royal 

 Horticultural Society are a good example of the new type of scholarship 

 which we need. Our education has been in the past too bookish. Too 

 little has boon done to bring school training into close relation with 

 nature and with handicraft. Our aim should be to make education at 

 one and tho same time practical and humane, scientific in its grip on 

 facts, and at tho same time inspiring through its moral ideals. Tho 

 County Education Committees havo been charged with a great task of 

 educational reform, and we wish them success in the efforts which they 

 are making to accomplish it. Among the English County Councils 

 a particularly honourable place is held by the County Council of Surrey, 

 the health of which I have the honour to propose. 



Sir William Vincent said :— Tho work of tho Surrey County Council 

 is an ever-increasing one. The motor traffic the inconveniences of which 

 wo have already experioncod on our way to Wisloy is responsible for 

 no small part of this. Tho Council has 220 miles of main road to 

 lip-keep, at a cost of 1(55,000 last year. This is an increase of £5,000 

 on the previous year, which was itself £5,000 more than the year before 

 it, and so on. 



Tho Surrey County Council does its duty, not to perfection perhaps, 

 but it lias tried to do something for those having special aptitude for 

 horticulture. Last year wo spent on special subjocts (horticulture being 

 tho spocial subject referred to) .101 I, and tho estimate for tho current 

 year for horticulture as a special subject is .1750. Last year eightoen 

 lectures on fruit, flowors, and vegetables wore given, besides addresses 



