Rpport on Agricultural Education. 
519 
(1.) The recent establishment of a Chair of Agriculture at 
the Normal School of Science, South Kensington. 
(2.) A grant of 150/. a year towards the endowment of a 
Chair of Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh. 
The few institutions in this country at which agriculture is 
taught, are either self-supporting, or depend for their existence 
upon voluntary subscriptions, or owe their foundation to the 
self-sacrificing labour of philanthropic individuals. The prin- 
ciple of the Education Department of the State in this country 
is to give its pecuniary rewards to the teachers, with a view 
of stimulating them to impart instruction ; but in very few 
instances, and those mainly in elementary schools, has this 
principle been carried out so far as Agricultural Education is 
concerned. It is true that the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England and the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland 
have from time to time examinations in Agricultural Science, 
and that the object of these bodies is to reward the learners, with 
a view to stimulate the acquisition of further knowledge, either 
on their own account or as teachers in the future ; but our 
Government steadily holds aloof from such a system. 
It will be necessary to give a brief description of the prin- 
cipal schools and colleges where agriculture is taught in Great 
Britain, and afterwards to notice the influence of the two 
national Agricultural Societies. 
Royal Agriculttjeal College, Cirencester. 
The Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester deservedly 
takes precedence in any review of what has been attempted or 
accomplished in Great Britain to promote the higher class of 
Agricultural Education. Although a school of agriculture 
existed in Ireland previous to its establishment, no institution 
of the kind, having for its object the technical instruction of 
agriculturists of any degree, had hitherto been founded in this 
country. The College owes its origin to an address by the late 
Mr. R. J. Brown to a meeting of the Cirencester Farmers' Club, 
held in November 1842, " On the Advantages of a specific 
Education for Agricultural Pursuits." 
It is needless to record the various steps which led up to the 
establishment of the College, but it is necessary to note that by 
the persevering efforts of Mr. Brown and others no less than 
12,000/. was raised by subscription amongst the nobility and 
landowners in various parts of the kingdom in a short time. 
Lord Bathurst, the owner of a large estate in the neighbour- 
hood, then offered a farm of 400 acres on lease for a long term 
of years, and the site on which the College now stands, on a 
