TlOJlTICrLTUKAI. EDUCATION. 



161 



Reference has been made to the Boards of Agriculture and Education. 

 The latter particularly is doubtless doing its best, and however faulty it 

 may still be there has been an enormous impro\ ement latterly. Would that 

 there were included in the Council persons who know more thoroughly 

 the difficulties and requirements of gardeners and farmers. Without 

 doubt the Board of Agriculture is doing much good work, but that this 

 department is badly in need of reorganisation no unbiassed person can, I 

 think, honestly deny. Even the annual grants made by it for educational 

 purposes are open to grave objections. It is difficult to understand the 

 basis upon which the grants are made. Certain it is that these grants 

 stifle a great deal of voluntary work. Persons who would help by their 

 own labours hold aloof because they consider that this Board should do 

 the work. When large sums of money are paid to institutions from 

 the rates, and especially from imperial sources (as, for instance, a subsidy 

 from the Board of Agriculture), persons of high academic rank, although 

 they may have but little practical knowledge, obtain the more important 

 posts, and though highly flattering reports may be made, those who 

 know most wisely shake their heads. The educational work of the Board 

 of Agriculture includes the publication and free distribution of pamphlets, 

 which are very useful for students and amateurs, but are generally of 

 comparatively little value to gardeners and farmers, and usually not up- 

 to-date. 



Doubtless many are the difficulties of the officials of the Board, and 

 one can understand that unless there is a thorough knowledge of the 

 details of actual requirements the results will not be for the best. It is 

 with very great satisfaction that we hear of several movements in the 

 right direction. If, as we may hope, these are indicative of reorganisa- 

 tion, or, at any rate, a desire to satisfy present-day needs, then every 

 person should promptly drop old grievances and help on the good work. 

 Hence the need of co-opted persons who really do know, and ivlio have 

 the courage and poiver to assert their knowledge. Information of an 

 unimpeachable character is wanted before it can be imparted to others. 

 Already there is a wealth of purely scientific information available (and 

 fortunately this will increase more and more), but the disinterested, im- 

 partial work on the application of science to gardening and farming is very 

 limited. How often do we have to content ourselves solely with the 

 vfoxk done over the seas, or by that of private persons ! Many of us 

 await anxiously for the development of the work by this Society at its 

 new experimental station at Wisley. If purely scientific problems be 

 made subservient to the applications of science to gardening —more 

 especially the economic side — then the work will deserve, and doubtless 

 receive, the hearty support of all concerned. 



Much of the present published experimental work should be recog- 

 nised as specially selected results for purposes of advertisement, and 

 instructors of horticulture and agriculture and cultivators generally need 

 be very careful to difierentiate between these and unbiassed reports. The 

 requirements of cultivators will have to be recognised, or the masses will 

 force the matter into prominence. Let me appeal to our public men to 

 think well and seriously, not for the moment only, but for the years to 

 come ; not alone of sectarian strife, but for the true education of the 



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