The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane.

  • Robert John Kane
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this country. It should, like other industrial education, con- sist of the general scientific discipline which has been already described, and be perfected by the practical education of a well conducted farm. For the commencement of this education, the arrangements of the Royal Dublin Society are eminently adapted, and the co-operation of the Royal Agricultural Society, which embodies almost every landed interest in Ireland, will be a most powerful stimulus to those who have to live by agricul- ture, to avail themselves of such means of increased knowledge. The practical education of the farmer or land-steward can be completed in those schools, of which so many are now in opera- tion, or about being formed, as at Templemoyle and Lough- Ashe. That contemplated on a larger scale, at Leopardstown, cannot fail, if carried out upon a proper plan, to be of great utility. We will hear no more of the superiority of Scotch farming, or of the exclusive employment of Scotch stewards, if Irishmen set themselves about learning their trade as well, and fit themselves, by steadiness and practical knowledge, for such situations. That these views are in no material degree unsound, is fully shewn by the fact, that the Commissioners of Education have, in organizing the plan of instruction for the poorer classes, always considered industrial education as a necessary element of their system. What can be of higher beneficence to a popu- lation, than the instruction of the child in the general princi- ples of the trades, by one or other of which the man will have to support a family. This object, however, could not be fully carried out by the means hitherto available; and hence the Commissioners have, for reasons such as are described above, concentrated their efforts upon agricultural education. Even in this, their plans cannot be yet fully brought into play. The schoolmasters have to learn the principles of agriculture, be- fore they can teach them ; and this education of the educators, is the step now in process of working out. The scientific lec- tures, by eminently qualified teachers ; the practical workings on the model farm, under the directions of a highly skilful agriculturist, will, after a little, enable the Commissioners of Education to settle in each parish a schoolmaster, who will he