196 



PAELIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. 



[Sept.. 1896. 



These centres provide organised indoor training for a certain, 

 and necessarily, more or less limited number of students pursuing 

 a continuous course of study for two or more consecutive years. 

 They offer also, in accordance with the distinctive requirements 

 of their districts, a variety of other and more temporary courses 

 of instruction. The educational staff and machinery of the 

 centres is also made available for the work of the surrounding 

 county authorities, the educational services thus offered applying 

 equally to all branches of technical instruction, including,, 

 as determined by local circumstances, special subjects such as 

 forestry, horticulture, and dairying. 



In two instances in England and one in Scotland, separate 

 dairy institutes, established independently of departments of 

 colleges, are also at work over areas embracing several counties, 

 and special grants have been continued in these cases, in 

 recognition of their services to the agriculturists of districts 

 which have not yet been effectively reached by the collegiate 

 centres. 



In like manner special grants, noted in the last column of the 

 table, have been continued to three agricultural societies en- 

 gaged in experimental and research work of a different character 

 from that carried on by collegiate centres acting for groups of 

 counties or by the technical education committees of particular 

 counties. 



As on previous J occasions, full summaries are appended to this 

 Report showing the salient features of the work of each edu- 

 cational institute assisted by the Board during the past financial 

 year. 



The agricultural work of the following County Councils was, 

 in accordance with their request, inspected in 1895-6 : — 

 Northumberland, Cumberland, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Essex, 

 Berkshire, Hampshire, and Dorset, and, where desired by the 

 local authorities, advice was supplied by the Board. The infor- 

 mation thus collected, and that obtained by the inspection of 

 the collegiate centres, has been supplemented by a renewed 

 attempt to obtain by direct enquiry, and to summarise in one 

 general statement, the chief heads of the educational work in 

 which the various County Councils of Great Britain are engaged, 

 so far as these are connected with agricultural instruction. 



The series of notes based on the replies to this inquiry form 

 the third section of the Appendix, and although, as pointed out, 

 the information is still defective in many particulars, it 

 affords an approximate view of the local efforts now being 

 widely undertaken to make up for the conspicuous lack of 

 educational facilities reported bv the Departmental Committee 

 of 1887-8. 



