1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Agriculture/Agricultural Education

Agricultural Education.

In Great Britain agricultural education as a whole lacks the scope and co-ordination which it has in some continental countries. Centres at which higher agricultural education is given are, however, numerous. The chief are:—

	The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
	Aspatria Agricultural College, Carlisle.
	Tamworth Agricultural College.
*	Agricultural and Horticultural College, Uckfield, Sussex.
*	Agricultural and Horticultural College, Holme Chapel, Cheshire.
*	Harper-Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Salop.
*	Lancashire County School, Harris Institute, Preston.
*	University College of North Wales, Bangor.
*	University of Leeds.
*	Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
*	Cambridge University.
*	University College, Reading.
*	South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye.
*	University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
*	Agricultural Institute, Ridgmont (Bedfordshire County Council).
*	Essex County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford.

In the year 1904–1905 £10,600 was devoted by the Board of Agriculture to agricultural instruction and experiments. Of this sum the greater part was divided amongst the institutions marked with an asterisk in the above list. The first three named are private establishments. The county councils also expend sums varying at their own discretion on instruction in dairy-work, poultry-keeping, farriery and veterinary science, horticulture, agricultural experiments, agricultural lectures at various centres, scholarships at, and grants to, agricultural colleges and schools; the whole amount in 1904–1905 reaching £87,472.^[1] The sum spent by individual counties varies considerably. In 1904–1905 Lancashire (£8510), Kent (£5922) and Cheshire (£4510) spent most in this “direction. In some instances colleges are supported entirely by one county, as is the Holmes Chapel College, Cheshire; in others a college is supported by several affiliated counties, as in the case of the agricultural department of the University College, Reading, which acts in connexion with the counties of Berks, Oxon, Hants and Buckingham. The organization and supply of county agricultural instruction is often carried out through the medium of the institution to which the county is affiliated. In Scotland higher agricultural instruction is given at:—

Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College.
Edinburgh University, Agriculture Department.
West of Scotland Agricultural College, Glasgow.
Aberdeen and North of Scotland Agricultural College.
University of St. Andrews.

A typical course at one of the higher colleges lasts for two years and includes instruction under the heads of soils and manure, crops and pasture, live stock, foods and feeding, dairy work, farm and estate management and farm bookkeeping, surveying, agricultural buildings and machinery, agricultural chemistry, agricultural botany, veterinary science and agricultural entomology. Experimental farms are attached to the colleges. The facilities for intermediate are far inferior to those for higher agricultural education. Schools for farmers’ sons and daughters, and others, answering to the écoles pratiques d’agriculture (see France), are few, the principal being the Dauntsey Agricultural School, Wiltshire, the Hampshire Farm School, Basing, and the Farm School at Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumberland, maintained by the county councils of Cumberland and Westmorland. Occasionally grammar schools have agricultural sides, and in evening continuation schools agricultural classes are sometimes held. Both elementary day schools and continuation schools are in many cases provided with gardens in which horticultural teaching is given.

In Ireland agricultural education is under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, founded in 1899. Higher education is given at the Royal College of Science, Dublin; the Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin; and the Munster Institute, Cork, for female students, where dairying and poultry-keeping are prominent subjects. Winter classes for boys over sixteen years of age are held at centres in some counties, and there are winter schools of agriculture at Downpatrick, Monaghan and Mount Bellew (Co. Galway); while lectures are given at farmers’ meetings by itinerant instructors. The Department carries on agricultural experiment-stations at Athenry (Co. Galway), Ballyhaise (Co. Cavan) and Clonakilty (Co. Cork), where farm apprentices are received and instructed.

1. This sum was furnished out of a total of £693,851, forming the residue grant allocated for the purposes of education to the various county councils of England and Wales under the Local Taxation (customs and Excise) Act 1890.