From about the same period as the founda tion of the Rothamsted Experiments, dates the establishment of the Royal Agricultural So ciety, which, by its institution of national agri cultural shows held year by year in different parts of the country, has done much to foster the improvement of English live stock. For a long time also this society by its 'Journal,' by its appointment of consulting scientific advisers, by undertaking analyses for its members, was a great educational factor in the country, but the work of the society in this direction has of late years been largely taken over by other and more widespread agencies, while the society has no longer found fresh pioneer work to do but has more and more confined its energies to its annual show.
Agricultural education in Great Britain was for a long time restricted to private enterprise, the Royal Agricultural College at Cireneester being the first, and for a long time, the only institution giving a systematic training in agri cultural science. There were in 1916 21 agri cultural colleges in the United Kingdom, as well as professional chairs of agriculture in London, Reading, Bangor, Edinburgh, Cam bridge and Leeds universities. According to official statistics for 1914, the acreage of arable land in the United Kingdom was :— England, 10,306.000 acres; Wales, .692,000; Scotland,
3,295,000; Ireland, 5,027,000; Isle of Man and Channel Islands, 93,000. The live-stock figures for the same year showed 1,850,042 horses; 12,184,505 head of cattle; 28,000,000 sheep; and nearly 4,000,000 pigs. Total permanent pastur age, 27,351,000 acres; other grazing land, 13,000, OW acres.
Bibliography.— 'Annual Report' on the Agricultural Returns, etc., in Great Britain; Board of Agriculture (London 1906); 'Agricul tural Statistics' for Ireland; 'Annual Report,' Department of Agriculture and Technical In struction (Dublin 1905) ; 'Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture> (London 1897); 'Ireland: Industrial and Agricultural,' De partment of Agriculture and Technical Instruc tion (Dublin 1902) • Prothero, 'Pioneers and Progress in English Farming) (London 1888) ; Prothero, 'English Agriculture in the Reign of Queen Victona.' Journal Royal Agricultural Society, England (1901, p. 1) ; Caird, 'English Agriculture in 1850 and (London 1852) ; Wallace, 'Farm Live Stock of Great Britain) (London 1893); Rew, 'British Live Stock in the Nineteenth Century); Trans. Highland and Agricultural Society (Edinburgh 1901, p. 206) ; Hall, 'The Book of the Rothamsted Experi ments) (London 1905).