416 The Prize System as applied to Small Farmers in Ireland. 
Mungret, County Limerick. 
The Mungret Agricultural School is within three miles of the 
city of Limerick. There are many small farmers in the dis- 
trict, and the state of agriculture is more backward than could be 
expected. 
I was unable to take part last year in the inspection of the 
farms which were entered for the Spencer prizes, but in the pre- 
ceding years I found that the system had been productive of the 
most beneficial results. Indeed, I do not know any place in 
which it could be carried on with greater advantage. I have found 
a laudable desire among persons in the district to co-operate in 
furthering it ; among whom I may mention the Hon. Hugh Massy 
and the late Mr. Michael Robert Ryan, J. P., of Temple Mungret. 
Grange, County Waterford. 
Considering its proximity to towns and cities, there are few 
districts in Ireland more backward than that through which runs 
the public road that connects Youghal with Dungarvan. 
It is bounded on the south and east by the sea, on the west 
by the Blackwater, and on the north by the ridge of land which 
at Dungarvan overhangs the canal. 
The Irish language is still spoken in this district by the greater 
number of the old, and by a large number of the young people. 
The district comprises an area of some 50,000 acres, which 
are occupied chiefly by small farmers, whose agricultural prac- 
tices have hitherto been of a primitive character. 
The Grange National School is situated in the western part of 
this district, about six miles from Dungarvan and four from 
Youghal. The school is on the property of Sir Richard Mus- 
grave, Bart. Finding that the rudiments of modern agricultural 
knowledge were little known among the small farmers, the late 
Sir Richard Musgrave, as manager and patron of the school, 
in 1863 determined on engrafting elementary instruction in 
agriculture on the ordinary school curriculum. A piece of land, 
containing two statute acres, which was then attached to the 
school, has been cultivated since as a school-farm. 
The seeds of agricultural knowledge thus sown must in due 
time bear fruit. The boys acquire useful information on soils, 
manures, crops, and live-stock. But the benefits of agricultural 
education will be more felt in the next than in the present 
generation. Lord Spencer's letter to the Commissioners of 
National Education showed that he saw the advantage of using 
the primary schools for conveying agricultural knowledge to the 
future small farmers in Ireland ; but he evidently saw also that 
something more was required to bring a taste lor improvement 
