PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. 265 

amalgamation of the Agricultural Department of the Glasgow 
and West of Scotland Technical College with the Kilmarnock 
Dairy School have been brought to a successful conclusion. | 
The new institution, which is known as the West of Scotland 
Agricultural College, has been placed under the direction of a 
Board of Governors, very largely representative of agricultural 
interests, who may be trusted, from their intimate knowledge 
of the wants of the farming community, to give to the work 
of the new College that direction which is most likely to be 
productive of benefit to the agriculture of the district. In 
addition to the Government grant, the new institution has 
received the promise of very substantial support from the 
various local authorities of the West of Scotland; and 
the Department think that this example might with 
advantage be more largely followed by local authorities in 
other parts of Scotland as regards the support of Agricultural 
centres in other districts. The support given to each Insti- 
tution from Imperial and national funds must be to a large 
extent dependent upon the appreciation of its work in the 
various localities concerned, as evidenced by continued local 
support, and the Scottish Education Department think that 
the most effective way of securing such support, as well as of 
ensuring that the work of each Institution shall take the 
direction most likely to be productive of benefit to the 
locality, is to entrust its executive management to a body 
of Governors who are thoroughly representative of the most 
enlightened opinion on agricultural subjects among both 
farmers and landowners. 
The Department do not think it feasible or desirable to 
make practical instruction in agriculture part of the 
curriculum of rural schools in general, but they think it 
possible to give to the studies of the more advanced 
pupils in many of these schools such a direction as 
Shall foster their interest in rural life, and give them 
some insight into the scientific principles which underlie 
the practice of agriculture. To afford opportunity to 
teachers in suitable localities to qualify themselves more 
fully to give instruction of this nature, itis recommended that 
Classes for the instruction of teachers in matters appertaining 
