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tion he will be presented by our honorary chairman, Doctor Isaachsen.

Honorary Chairman ISAACHSEN. I beg to present Mr. V. E. Wilkins, of the intelligence department, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, England, who will speak on "The status of dairy education in England and Wales." [Applause.]

Mr. V. E. WILKINS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen: I apologize in the first place for not being here at the beginning of this morning's session, but it was the first opportunity for a good night that I have had since I left England, and I took advantage of it. [Laughter.] I would like to make one or two introductory remarks with regard to the title and the length of the paper. We were asked by the program committee arranging the program of the congress to supply a short paper on the status of dairy education in England and Wales, which would be part of the symposium, so it is said, dealing with that subject.

We understood by the word "status" that the program committee wished to know how dairy education was organized in England by the central authority and, secondly, what place it had in the general scheme of agricultural education.

On that assumption this paper was written. It, therefore, deals entirely with administrative matters, and it does not purport to be a description of the methods by which education is carried out in my country.

I make that explanation because I noticed that several of the papers which have been read to you this morning have dealt with methods of education, and I would like to emphasize that this paper does not purport to touch that question.

Secondly, on the subject of the length, I propose to make my remarks exceedingly brief because the morning is already far advanced and you will wish to have time to discuss the numerous interesting papers which we have heard.

THE STATUS OF DAIRY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AND WALES. V. E. WILKINS, B. Sc., assistant principal, intelligence department, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, London.

The funds provided by the Government for the assistance of dairy education in England and Wales are administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It should be made clear, however, that the ministry has itself no powers to provide any form of education. Its functions are limited to aiding those aspects of agricultural (including dairy) education which it thinks desirable to encourage and assist by Government grants. The responsibility for the actual provision of such education rests with the local education authorities for the various counties, or with the governing bodies of agricultural colleges and university departments of agriculture.

The interest shown by the Government in agricultural education has increased very largely during the past decade. Thirty years ago the amount of Government money available for aiding agricultural education was negligible. Then, through the fortunate coincidence that the then Chancellor of the Exchequer found himself with a surplus of funds at the end of the year, local committees in the

various counties were empowered by Parliament to use this money for the provision of technical instruction. The money came from excise duties on spirits and was therefore known as the "whiskey money." Although many changes in the relations between the State and these local committees, both administratively and financially, have taken place since that time, it is only recently that the "whiskey money" has been entirely diverted from the provision of local agricultural education and used for other purposes.

Government grants in aid of agricultural education provided by the local committees referred to above (as modified by subsequent acts of Parliament) remained very small so recently as 1919. For the five years ending March 31, 1919, the average annual Government grant for county agricultural education in England and Wales was about £25,000, including both capital and maintenance grants. On April 1, 1919, however, a new and much more liberal scheme of Government aid was brought into force. This scheme is still in operation, and under it the Ministry of Agriculture is empowered to pay at least two-thirds of the cost of all approved schemes of agricultural education carried out by the local education authorities in the various counties. On certain items of expenditure the rate of grant is as high as 80 per cent, and the all-round rate at present stands at 67 per cent of the total maintenance expenditure. In addition, capital expenditure, e. g., on the provision and equipment of a farm institute, hostel, or dairy, is aided by the ministry to the extent of 75 per cent. In respect of the financial year ending March 31, 1922, the Ministry of Agriculture paid to local education authorities a sum of £213,086 in aid of a total expenditure of £313,585 incurred by them on the provision of agricultural education. This included capital grants of £32,119 in aid of expenditure of £42,825.

In order to qualify for grants from Government funds, local education authorities are required to submit their estimates and schemes of work to the ministry before expenditure is incurred. As the circumstances in the various counties vary widely, the ministry makes no attempt to thrust cut-and-dried schemes upon the local authorities, but leaves them, generally speaking, a very large measure of discretion as to the particular schemes which they adopt in their own areas. From the national point of view, however, it often happens that a scheme of activity may usefully be devised at headquarters and commended strongly to the attention of local education authorities in the country areas. This leads us to the consideration of dairy education as a special part of the general scheme of agricultural education, to which reference has been made above. Certain national movements, such as that in favor of the production of cleaner milk, which is so much to the front to-day, do require the influence of a Government department in bringing home to the various local authorities the need for instruction and propaganda along particular lines. Mainly for this purpose, the education department of the ministry, which is responsible for the administration of all Government grants in aid of agricultural education, has at its disposal the ministry's dairy comissioner, Mr. J. F. Blackshaw, O. B. E., on whom rests the responsibility for ensuring that, so far as possible, an efficient system of dairy education is carried out in the country. Mr. Blackshaw is reading to this congress a paper on the methods adopted in Eng

land and Wales to convey education and the principles of cooperation to the farmer, and in that paper he will outline the various schemes adopted by local authorities, which it is his province to encourage, supervise, and, in some instances, to initiate. For the purpose of my own paper, therefore, it will be sufficient to say that in this work, Mr. Blackshaw receives the assistance of a number of inspectors, who are specially qualified in dairying, and he is also able to make use of the general inspectorate organization of the ministry, under which the country is divided into six inspectorial areas, each under the general charge of a divisional inspector, who has under him a staff of inspectors specially qualified in particular subjects.

It is impossible to say precisely how much money is spent by local authorities in England and Wales on the provision of dairy education. It can only be stated that this aspect of education forms a very valuable and increasingly important part of the general scheme which is now in operation. In 45 counties out of 61, one or more dairy instructresses are employed by local authorities, the number of instructresses varying, of course, with the importance of dairy farming in the county..

Before passing to the agricultural colleges and university departments, which provide higher education in dairying, a brief outline of the general educational scheme in operation in the country may be given. The counties of England and Wales are grouped round one or other of the higher agricultural education institutions; thus each county finds itself in a "province" served, as regards higher agricultural education, by an agricultural college or a university department of agriculture. There are, at present, 11 of these provinces.

The counties grouped round each provincial institution usually contribute to the funds of the latter, and thus there is established a close connecting link, which is to the mutual advantage of both parties. On the one hand, the county, through its local education authority, supplies the raw material to the college in the form of intelligent boys or girls, who have shown a special aptitude for proceeding further with their education; in many cases, these boys or girls are sent to the college by means of scholarships granted by the local authorities. On the other hand, the lecturers at the college are available for advising farmers in the counties supporting the college, on technical questions which may be outside the scope of the county staffs. Further cooperation between the two parties to this partnership is secured by periodical conferences held at the college, at which the principal members of the local staffs meet with the college lecturers and discuss common problems and plans of action. Further, the colleges normally possess on their staff specialists in certain scientific subjects (e. g., plant pests), who spend very little time at teaching, but devote their attention almost entirely to research work into local problems, and thus are particularly valuable as advisers to farmers in the area. Generally also, the colleges serve as an important connecting link between the national research institutes and the farmers.

The short courses of dairy instruction (traveling dairy schools. etc.) provided by local education authorities lead up to longer courses of, say, three or four months' duration held mainly at farm institutes (also maintained by local authorities), and these in turn lead to long

dairying courses at the agricultural colleges or university departments of agriculture, which prepare for the national diploma in dairying. This "dairy education ladder" has, however, been more fully described in Mr. Blackshaw's paper. One provincial college, in particular, namely, the University College, Reading, is distinguished by the special attention which is paid to dairying, and it has the advantage of being associated closely with the National Institute for Research in Dairying, which is represented at this congress by two members of its staff, Dr. Stenhouse Williams and Captain Golding.

It is again impossible to say precisely what amount of Government. aid is provided for higher education in dairying. Government maintenance grants to agricultural colleges are fixed grants for a term of years, and cover all aspects of the agricultural education work of the colleges. At present, £46,500 per annum is being paid by the Government in the form of maintenance grants to the provincial institutions. This is exclusive of the grant in aid of the research work carried out at the Reading Institute, which, for the academic year 1922-23 has been fixed at about £8.000.

This paper would not be complete without a reference to a special fund which has recently been made available for assisting agricultural education and research in Great Britain. When the corn production acts of 1917 and 1920, under which subsidies for certain cereals were guaranteed to farmers, were repealed by the Government in 1921, a fund of £1,000,000 was set aside for assisting agricultural development. Of this amount, £850,000 was allocated to England and Wales to be spread over a period of five years. While it is not possible to say how much of this sum will be used for extending dairy education, it may be stated that considerable prominence has been given to this subject, and the provision of funds on such a comparatively lavish scale will, it is hoped, make possible an important advance in the scheme of dairy education and research at present in operation.

Chairman PEARSON. Ladies and gentlemen: What will be your pleasure? We have perhaps 45 minutes before it would be time to adjourn. Will you call for some paper which has not been read? Will we ask the secretary to read it? Unfortunately a number of our very prominent friends in foreign countries are not here, and they are doing a splendid work. We in America have great respect for the work that is being done in other countries. Do you wish to call for one of those papers or more than one, or take the time for discussion of papers which we have heard? What is your pleasure? We have interpreters here to assist us in the discussion so that everyone should be able to understand what is said. There is another alternative. You may adjourn if you desire to do that.

There are many things that could be said. I could call some of you by name and start a discussion which would be interesting, but I would like to have you decide what we shall do to fill the remainder of the time, if you remain for that purpose.

Mr. WILKINS. Perhaps Professor Fascetti's paper might be read, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman PEARSON. Mr. Wilkins makes the suggestion that the paper entitled "Cheese-making instruction in Italy," by G. Fascetti, director, cheese experiment station, Lodi, Italy, should be read. This paper is here in the French language. The secretary is unable to read French and give us the English translation of it. It may be that some one can do that, Could you, Mr. Wilkins?

Mr. WILKINS. No.

Chairman PEARSON. Then we shall be denied the privilege of hearing this paper unless some one will volunteer to present it. We will, of course, have it in full when the proceedings are printed.

Has anyone else a suggestion to offer? If not, those remaining papers whose authors are not present will be read by title. (Adjournment.)

(Papers read by title):

DAIRY INSTRUCTION IN AUSTRIA.

WILLIBALD WINKLER, Ph. D., Agricultural College, Vienna, Austria.

There is a school for dairy science held in conjunction with agricultural bacteriology at the Agricultural High School in Vienna. The lectures (two a week) are compulsory, and dairy science is a subject for State examination. The school (Dr. W. Winkler, principal) maintains a laboratory for investigation and research of dairy practice, but does not have a barn or dairy.

At the present time Austria does not have a single school equipped for the technical training of dairy personnel. Nor is there any dairy inspector in any of the Austrian agricultural districts. Vorarlberg. Tyrol, and Kärnten each have one dairy instructor.

There was a cheese school connected with the lower agricultural schools in Rotholz near Innsbruck in the Tyrol, but this is not in operation at the present time. An earlier cheese school at Doren has survived the war. For practical instruction in the Tyrol there is a herdsmen's school at Imst.

Dairy-science instruction is also undertaken, of course, in the agricultural schools, especially for girls of the farm and household management classes, in Klagenfurt and Kärnten. Necessary instruction in dairy science by means of journeymen's courses is undertaken in some of the farming districts such as Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Kärnten, and Oberösterreich.

The Dairy Society of Austria is making an effort to bring into existence a school for instruction and research in dairying that has been provided for by Parliament for three years.

DAIRY INSTRUCTION IN NORWAY.

Kr. STØREN, professor in dairy technology, Norwegian Agricultural College, Aas,

Norway.

A. THE LOWER DAIRY INSTRUCTION.

The first dairy schools in Norway were founded by the Royal Society for Promoting the Welfare of Norway, a private agricultural association, in 1867, and were intended for the education of women

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