to possess the best stock, the neatest
homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The
unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which
will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of
the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest,
new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character.

We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any
system--that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in
two directions--first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary
scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a
lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in
the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been
desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive
importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional
importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable,
but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for
it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising students
with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a
large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic
conditions of the people among whom they are to work.

The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly
stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the
teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching
profession could not be relegated again to the _status pupillaris_.
There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the
difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the
sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they
willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of
practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five
hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves,
have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at
several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed
themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual
instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and
modelling.

For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of
science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of