Report on Ac/riciiltural Education. 
539 
jnanagement. At the present time there are thus left in 
Ireland only two schools, which are supported by the State, 
namely, the Munster Farm at Cork, and the Albert Institution, 
Glasnevin. The case of the Munster Farm is interesting. 
Just as the Commissioners were taking steps to get rid of it, a 
movement was set on foot in Cork to reanimate it, and an 
appeal made to the Treasury to allow its object to be made 
the improvement of butter-making. 
Luckily this appeal gained the Treasury sanction, but the 
local committee had to advance considerable sums in augmen- 
tation of the parliamentary grant. Some account of the school 
will appear later on, but it may be mentioned here that the 
experiment so far has been eminently successful. 
The training of teachers in the Normal School at Dublin has 
been carried on from year to year, and about 100 male students 
get sound practical instruction every year upon the Glasnevin 
Farm during the period of their training. 
Templemoyle Seminary. 
The first school, of which it would be desirable to give a few 
details, is the oldest institution of the kind in Ireland, namely, 
that of Templemoyle, about six miles from Derry. It was 
organized on the plan of a school in Switzerland, and the 
necessary funds were obtained by the issue of shares. The 
Grocers' Company, who had subscribed about 1200/. towards 
the establishment of the school, let the committee about 169 
Imperial acres of land for the small sum of 30/. per annum. 
Like some other Institutions, the history of which has been 
chronicled in these pages, the school was by no means a financial 
success in its early days. The fees charged were only 10/. a- 
year, for which the pupils received a theoretical and practical 
instruction on the half-time principle, that is to say, that one- 
half of their time was devoted to actual work on the farm. The 
bo^s were divided into two equal divisions, A and B. On a 
given day division A commenced work in the morning and B 
went to school, and so on alternately. 
The head-farmer had full directions given him by the com- 
mittee as to the manual labour which the boys were to perform 
upon the farm, and he delivered evening lectures to the pupils 
on the theory and practice of agriculture. 
In the course of twenty-three years this school educated as 
many as 800 pupils, and its career must be regarded as eminently 
successful in accomplishing the objects for which it was founded. 
That it was unsuccessful financially, and therefore ceased to 
exist some years ago, is much to be regretted. 
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