68 Report of Committee on Agricultural Education. 
Germany. But as soon as the experiment stations, from which 
we receive to-day such important bulletins, had been estab- 
lished and had set to work to discover facts applicable to the 
agricultural conditions of America, a striking change in the 
attitude of the farmers was observed. Here, then, is a point 
to be noted. To win the confidence of farmers in America the 
teacher had to provide him, not with broad general principles, 
but with direct information which he could put to the test on 
his own farm and find to be accurate. 
In Germany also there was, at first, a marked indifference 
on the part of the agriculturist towards agricultural education, 
but the State “ provided a supply of scientific facts and a 
system of knowledge precisely adapted to the special needs of 
the German agriculturist. He, finding teachers he could trust 
and information that interested him, has abandoned his former 
attitude of indifference.” 
“Denmark,” says the Report, “may be quoted as a State 
in which the problem of reaching the farmer no longer really 
exists. The desire for knowledge existing in Denmark has 
made the task of the teacher an easy one. This desire for 
knowledge is not a marked attribute of the agricultural classes 
in England, and in providing agricultural education for this 
country the greatest stress should be laid on all means 
calculated to arouse a demand for information.” Here, then, 
we arrive at the real problem of agricultural education in this 
country. How is this desire for knowledge to be aroused ? 
We have seen how the success that has attended agricultural 
education in Germany and in the United States was achieved. 
Is it unreasonable to hope that similar efforts in this country 
would meet with similar success ? On the contrary, the 
Committee had overwhelming evidence of the practical appre- 
ciation by farmers of the experimental work conducted in 
various parts of this country. “ Round those institutions,” 
states the Report, “ at which experimental work has been 
properly conducted, numbers of farmers may be found keenly 
interested in the new facts which each year brings to light.” 
Experimental and Research Work. 
It must be remembered that the Committee’s terms of 
reference did not permit them to make inquiries into the 
economic value of research. Their inquiry was limited 
to th§ relation of research to education. This relation was 
clearly demonstrated by Mr. E. S. Beaven, of Warminster. 
Asked if a possible explanation of the farmers’ apparent lack 
of appreciation of instruction was that teachers in this country 
had not the necessary material at their disposal with which to 
instruct him, he replied, “ You have not sufficiently good 
