Report of Committee on Agricultural Education. 63 
and Committees, proved invaluable. The names of my other 
colleagues were such as to guarantee a full and impartial 
inquiry, and to command respect for their recommendations. 
They were : — Lord Barnard, Lord Belper, Lord Moreton, 
Mr. F. D. Acland, M.P., Mr. David Davies, M.P., Mr. H. S. 
Staveley-Hill, M.P., Professor T. H. Middleton, of the Board 
of Agriculture, Professor William Somerville, Mr. Thomas 
Latham, and Mr. J. C. Medd. 
The Committee held sittings on thirty-one days to receive 
evidence, and on twenty other days to consider their Report. 
They examined 113 witnesses and asked over 16,000 questions. 
They received innumerable pamphlets and publications of 
every description. Their unanimous Report extends to thirty- 
nine closely printed folio pages. The early determination 
of the Committee that their inquiry should be comprehensive 
and exhaustive was thus undeniably realised. 
It will be observed that the terms of reference were limited 
in two important respects. First, the inquiry was confined to 
England and Wales. At the outset I expressed the opinion 
that from both the English and the Scottish point of view it was 
regrettable that the terms of reference did not include the 
whole of Great Britain. Nothing that has since transpired has 
altered that opinion. Secondly, education of an elementary or 
secondary character did not come within the scope of the 
inquiry. Although what may be called “ rural ” in contra- 
distinction to “ agricultural ” education was not strictly 
within the Committee’s terms of reference, yet many witnesses 
alluded to it. Much interesting and valuable evidence on such 
questions as nature study, “ rural bias,” and school-gardens was 
received ; and there can be little doubt that the almost 
unanimous opinion expressed by witnesses that elementary and 
secondary schools should always provide a general and not a 
specialised education, had much influence with the Committee. 
Mr. Medd deals with the question of rural schools in his 
supplementary memorandum, but the only mention of rural 
education in the Report of the Committee is as follows : — 
“ Nothing in our system of education should hinder any lad from 
seeking his life’s work upon the land. On the contrary, all that 
is possible should be done to show him how, by the application 
of skilled knowledge, agriculture holds out the prospect of not 
only an interesting but a profitable career. A complete system 
of technical agricultural education is, therefore, the natural 
corollary to the vast sums spent on elementary education in the 
rural parts of the country.” With this exception the Report 
is confined to questions connected with the provision of 
instruction in agriculture, and in allied subjects, to persons 
generally above school age. 
