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BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Educational Pamphlets, No. 25.

REPORT OX FARM AND

AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS AND

COLLEGES IN FRANCE, GERMANY

AND BELGIUM.

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BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Educational Pamphlets, No. 25.

C/

REPORT ON FARM AND

AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS AND

COLLEGES IN FRANCE, GERMANY,

AND BELGIUM.

,' ' ^LONDON:
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1912.

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PREFATORY NOTE.

The following report on Agricultural Instruction in France,
Germany, and Belgium has been prepared by Mr. R. B. Greig,
who was for a short time a Staff-Inspector under the Board of
Education. It is thought that the efforts of those who are
endeavouring to organize agricultural education in this country
on a more effective basis will be furthered by this account of
the manner in which similar problems are dealt with on the
Continent.

The institutions which Mr. Greig visited in 1911 were the
following : in France, the Farm School {Ferme-Ecole) at Saut-
Gautier, the Schools of Practical Agriculture (Eeoles Pratiques
a" Agriculture) at Chesnoy, Douai, and Le Paraclet, and the
Agricultural School (Ecole Nationale a" Agriculture) at Grignon.
In Prussia, the Agricultural High School or College (Landioirt-
schaftliche Hochschule) in Berlin, the Farm and Garden School
(Ackerbauschule) at Oranienburg, and the Agricultural School
{Landwirtsschaftsschule) at Hilclesheim. In Bavaria, the Agri-
cultural Department of the Technical High School at Munich,
and the Agricultural Museum at Munich ; in Wurtemberg, the
Farm Schools (Ackerbausehulen) at Hohenheim and Ellwangen,
and the Agricultural College (Kgl. Landwirtschaftliche Aka-
demie) at Hohenheim. In Belgium, the Horticultural School
{Ecole a" Horticulture de VEtat) at Vilevorde, the Schools of
Housekeeping and Rural Economy {Eeoles Menageres) for girls
at Bouchout and Berlaer ; the School of Practical Agriculture for
Boys 0cole Moyenne Pratique a" Agriculture de VEtat) at Huy ;
the Agricultural Institute {Institut Agricole de VEtat) at Gem-
bloux, and the Agricultural Department of the University of
Louvain.

The Board desire to acknowledge the courtesy which was
extended to Mr." (3-rftig ."by; Jt&e 'authorities; o£ fhes£ institutions.

It must be understock:! •tiat'- the' -Bo^i'd "«do not necessarily
endorse all the opinions expressed in .this pamphlet, for which
the author is alone responsible. *' ' . •

Office of Special* Inquiries: and* Exports, : !
November *i912V

( 1 )

REPORT ON FARM AND AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS
AND COLLEGES IN FRANCE, GERMANY,
AND BELGIUM.

Introduction.

A report upon Foreign Agricultural Schools may describe
them without comment or criticism, or it may be written
from the standpoint which keeps always in view whether or
not they are applicable to English conditions, and to what
extent their imitation, in whole or in part, would fill up the
gaps in English agricultural education. Several writers have
fully described the systems of agricultural education in France
and Germany without much comment, in particular, Mr. Austin
Lee and Dr. Rose respectively, and the Belgian schemes have
been outlined by Monsieur Paul de Vuyst and others. More-
over, it is matter of common knowledge to educationists,
that those systems, in theory at least, provide a graduated and
homogeneous programme of instruction in agriculture — in the
wide sense — from the elementary school to the University.

Therefore I do not propose to traverse ground already
covered, but to deal in detail only with those intermediate
schools which exemplify distinct methods, and to examine
them in the light of their possible adjustment to English condi-
tions. Further, for the sake of comparison, I have included an
account of a Swedish Agricultural School visited in 1909,
and of an Australian Agricultural High School inspected in
1910. It is unnecessary to give a full account of all the
institutions visited, and to describe them in the chronological
order of their inspection or according to their nationality would
be absurd outside of a diary of travel, I have therefore
arranged those that are typical in six classes, more or less
according to the grade of instruction and the length of the
course.

Classification of Schools Visited.

(a) Farm Schools situated on Farms.

(b) Winter and Short Course Schools with no Farm.

(c) Long Course Schools with no Farm.

(d) Secondary Schools with an agricultural side, and a .

Farm.

(e) Schools of Practical Agriculture with Farms.
(/) Agricultural Colleges.

(g) Itinerant Instruction and Womens' Institutes.

(11) 12842 Wt 3096-932 2000 11/12 E & S A 2

2 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

(a) Farm Schools situated on Farms.

Ferme-Ecole du Saut Gautier (France).

This school received from the Minister of Agriculture
"la prime d'honneur des Fermes-Ecoles," for general good
management in 1911, so that it may be regarded as an excellent
specimen. At one time there were over 70 of these schools in
France, now there are only seven or eight and the number is
decreasing. The object of the Ferme-ficole is to instruct the
sons of farm labourers, chiefly in practical agriculture. It
supplies the lowest grade of agricultural instruction in France,
and can scarcely be dignified with the name of school, as it is
a private venture on the part of the owner or tenant of the
farm. In this case the farm of about 360 acres is mostly in
grass to maintain a herd of milk cows of the Normandy
breed, to raise a few horses, and to fatten some cattle. The
management is of the kind usual in the neighbourhood and not
remarkably good.

The institution is controlled by a committee of seven,
including the Inspector-General of Agriculture, a Professor of
Science, and two well-known local farmers. The staff, in addition
to the Director, who is tenant of the farm, comprises a superin-
tendent who is also book-keeper, a veterinary surgeon who gives
occasional lessons, a gardener, a farm foreman, and a drainer.

The theoretical teaching, which occupies about one-third ol
the time, is very elementary, consisting of primary school
subjects, a little science, some surveying and book-keeping,
and a " complete " course in agricidture and horticulture. The
pupils, who must be over 15, are admitted by competition
after examination in reading, dictation, and arithmetic ; the
tuition and board and lodging are free, and the instruction
extends over two years. The numbers vary from two or three
to twelve, and a few young men are accepted on special terms
at any season of the year.

The buildings and the accommodation for the pupils on
this farm are of the most ordinary, even the roughest, de-
scription, and according to a student with whom I spent an
hour, the out-door work is too long and too hard, teaching is
only in vogue when no work can be found on the farm, and
there is little to b.e learned which he did not know before.
The opinion of a student cannot be taken very seriously, but
certainly the general impression made by the whole institution
is not favourable.

The Ferme-Ecole may have served a useful purpose in the
development of French agriculture, but its place is now taken
to some extent by the Schools of Practical Agriculture (see
below, p. 13), and it is more than hinted that the tenants of
the Farm Schools have looked upon the pupils more as
labourers than as subjects for instruction. The Farm School

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 3

on the above lines has no conceivable place in English
education, for the reason that an English farm labourer's son
can get practical instruction Avhile working for wages, and as
useful theoretical teaching as is given in the Fermes-Ecoles by
means of continuation classes and evening lectures. In some
parts of Ireland where the art of agriculture is almost lost, it
is possible that a Farm School might be a success under the
strictest supervision.

Ackerbauschule, Ellwangen (Germany).

This school is one of four in the State of Wurtemberg, and
each is situated so as to serve a particular area which differs in
climate or soil from the others. The schools were founded to
educate youths of the peasant class in theoretical and practical
agriculture, and originally the course covered three years,
though now it is reduced to two. The students must be
17 years of age, drawn from the farming class, strong, healthy,
and of good character. They must pass a simple entrance
examination, for which the elementary school can prepare them.
Tuition, board and lodging, &c, are free, and at the end of the
year, a small sum of money is apportioned to each youth
according to his work and conduct. Six students are admitted
every year, so that there are always twelve in residence. At
Hohenheim there are twenty-four, and the number seems to vary
between these limits.

The staff consists of a Director, who is also the tenant of the
farm, which he cultivates and manages for his own profit and
at his own risk at a nominal rent. There are also a science
master, a veterinary surgeon, and a gardener and forester. The
buildings are part of a magnificent old castle, with more than
enough room for every possible purpose, and evidently too little
money to equip them properly.

The course of study falls naturally into three parts, general,
special, and practical : —

General Course. (700 to 720 hours per year) : —
(1) German language, including writing, spelling, compo-
sition, and business correspondence ; (2) arithmetic,
general and agricultural ; (3) geometry, including sur-
veying and levelling ; (4) drawing of buildings, machinery,
and plants ; (5) chemistry, botany, physics, mineralogy.

Special Course. (460 to 470 hours per year) :—
(6) Soil and plant cultivation, cropping, &c. ; (7) stock
breeding, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry ; (8)
agricultural industries, brewing, distilling, dairying ;
(9) land management, taxation, rural economics ; (10)
book-keeping and accounts ; (11) veterinary science,
anatomy, physiology and diseases of farm animals, horse-
shoeing, &c.

4 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

Practical Course. (About one half of each day) : —
Nearly all the work of the farm, garden, and experimental
field is carried on by the students. They are also
required to plan the work, to keep records of purchases
and sales, and to assist in buying and selling. Numerous
excursions are made to neighbouring farms, and once a
year an extended tour of several days is made to inspect
distant farms and estates.
The farm attached to this school extends to nearly 300 acres.
It is managed according to the custom of the district, and
maintains chiefly a herd of Simmenthaler cows for the sale of
milk in the neighbourhood. The farm carries good clean crops,
and there is an experiment field, somewhat unfortunately
situated, where numerous variety, and some manurial experi-
ments, are under way.

Theoretically, the scheme is excellent, and calculated to
turn out well-trained and efficient young men, who will do
much to improve the agriculture of their districts. But let us
look at it from a practical standpoint.

In the first place, though the school was intended to train
young peasant farmers and return them to the land, it is
admitted that many become managers, inspectors, and officials,
while some go on to higher agricultural institutions, and 7 or
8 per cent, follow non-agricultural pursuits. When one or two
of the students were questioned, it was found that inspectorships
were their ambition, and one at least intended to farm in the
Argentine. It is further pointed out in the prospectus of the
school that Winter Schools of Agriculture are now carrying out
the functions of the Farm Schools, and, therefore, other students
than the sons of peasants are now being accepted by the latter.
The Ackerbauschule is thus a partial failure, and less a training-
ground for poor young farmers, than a stepping-stone to
salaried positions.

Again, a large amount of time spent in acquiring manual
dexterity may be necessary in Germany, but in England it
would be wasteful of time and money. Another drawback to
the school is the custom of requiring the Director to manage
the farm at his own risk. This method has the one advantage
of cheapness which is more than counterbalanced by the
unavoidable tendency, for which one can scarcely blame the
Director, to economise in certain directions. The point need
not belaboured, but the livestock, cowsheds, stables, dairies, &c,
on this and other farm schools under the same system, are
sufficient evidence of how economy handicaps demonstration.
The best use cannot be made of a farm as a demonstration area,
and field experiments on a reasonable scale become impossible
when the Director must first consider his own pocket. In some
cases the cost of field demonstration is borne by the State or

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 5

other authority. In such cases there should be much more
experimental work in evidence.

The lower standard of living in Germany disarms criticism
of the students' accommodation, but there is only one class
room, with no modern fittings, and there is no work room or
laboratory. On the other hand the German Farm Schools
must not be confused with the much inferior French Ferme-
Ecole, where the instruction of all kinds is on a lower grade.
The teaching at Ellwangen is thorough and excellent, judging
by the drawings of plants and machinery, the plans and
sections, and the collections of herbs and insects made by the
students. How far the excellence of the instruction is due
to the lavish provision of models, diagrams and apparatus
for the teaching of agriculture (as distinct from chemistiy,
botany, &c), it would be hard to say, but in this respect such a
low grade farm school as that of Ellwangen is better equipped
than any English agricultural college.

The Hohenheim Farm School, except that it contains twice
as many students, has a larger farm, and shares part of a group
of buildings with the contiguous agricultural college, differs
but little from that at Ellwangen.

Ecole Menagere (School of Housekeeping and Rural
Economy), Bouchout (Belgium).

This school for girls at Bouchout between Antwerp and
Brussels, is one of a number organised for the purpose of
giving sound instruction in household management and rural
domestic econonry to the daughters of working farmers, with a
view to creating in them a love of country life, an appreciation
of their duties, and the possibilities of a woman's life on a
farm. This type of school has been in operation for 20 years,
and the results leave no room for doubt as to its utility and
success. The full number of 18 girls live in the school and come
for a year, though occasionally one or two remain longer.
They are from 15 to 17 years old and all the daughters of
farmers. No fees are charged, but they pay for their food and
buy and cook it themselves. Each girl is supplied in turn
with the week's housekeeping money, and must make the best
of it for the whole party. The subjects taught are laundry
work, dairying and poultry keeping. The headmaster and two
women teachers comprise the staff. Most of the work is
practical, but some theoretical instruction is given, along with
lessons in French and Flemish composition. A small farm of
25 acres supplies food for nine cows and one horse, but the
girls do no outside work beyond the confines of a small garden
in which common vegetables are cultivated for the kitchen.
The general management of this school is admirable, the
equipment is good and the buildings are suitable, but the
methods of instruction deserve most praise. Examples of these

6 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

methods are as follows : — A small quantity of milk of a known
quality is separated on consecutive days by different separators
and the results noted. The washing is done by hand one day
and by machine the next, and the times and other data tabu-
lated. Then different washing machines are used under the
same conditions. A girl cuts bread by hand one day and by
machine the next, and each operation is timed. One garment is
sewn entirely by hand and another by machine, for the most
part, and timed. The walls are decorated with photographs in
pairs, each pair showing the right and wrong method of such
operations as milking cows, paring potatoes, feeding poultry,
washing dishes, arranging flowers on the table, &c.

Almost every duty which falls to the lot of the farmer's wife
in Belgium is the subject of instruction and explanation, not
only from the standpoint of economy of time, labour, and
money, but with the object of showing that life on the farm can
be made engrossingly interesting and full of pleasure. Many of
the earlier pupils of this and other schools of the same type are
now fanners' wives and active members of the Womeus'
Institutes which will be referred to below, and the best certifi-
cate of the utility of the instruction given in the Schools of
Rural and Domestic Economy is the frequently expressed
remark of the members of the Womens' Institutes, quoted by
the Director of Agricultural Education, " We want to learn
what those girls have learned."

Of a slightly different organisation is the girls' school at
Berlaer in the same district. Here the school is managed by
the Sisters of Saint Coeur de Marie and it receives a grant from
the Government for instructing the older pupils in household
and dairy management. The farm buildings are exceptionally
good and the best use is made of them by an agricultural
instructor and three instructresses. Again, we find it empha-
sised that the object of the instruction is to inspire the girls
with a love of the country and its duties and pleasures, so that
they may live useful lives for the good of others and the honour
and prosperity of Belgium.

The Belgians appear to understand that "where there is no
vision the people perish," and seem to find that visions are as
good as profits for baiting the lines of technical instruction.

(h) Winter and Short Course Schools with no
Farm.

Svalof High School and Winter School (Sweden)*

This school, which I visited in 1909, is interesting because
it embodies part of the organisation of the proposed English

* For details in regard to this school I am indebted to Mr. C. C. James,
C.M.G., Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Toronto, who accompanied me, and
who had the prospectus translated from the Swedish.

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 7

Agricultural Institutes, viz.. a winter course for young men and
a summer course for young women. The buildings are near the
little village of Svalof in Southern Sweden, and they include
two large lecture halls with library and cloak rooms, and a
large and fine gymnasium with modern equipment. In a
separate building are the living rooms of the students, the
masters' and matron's apartments, and the dining rooms.
There are 20 bedrooms with accommodation for two students
in each room.

The programme of the school includes : —

1. A winter term for young men from November to April,

consisting of a High School and an Agricultural College

Department.
-. A summer term for young women from May to July

consisting of a High School and a Household Training

Department.

High School Department. Winter Term, for men only : —

The object of this department is to give general instruction
in ordinary school subjects somewhat on the lines of the
Danish High Schools. Among other subjects, chemistry and
natural history are taught as well as book-keeping and
surveying and the students get daily practice in the gymnasium.
There is no entrance or exit examination, but pupils must be
at least 18 years old.

Agricultural Department. Winter Term, for men only : —

The object of this department is to give general agricultural
knowledge, chiefly theoretical. Secondary instruction is given
in grammar, history, geography, methods of local adminis-
tration, arithmetic, and hygiene ; but the principal training
is in chemistry, botany, zoology, agriculture, veterinary
hygiene, dairy work, forestry, gardening, farm management,
surveying, and lastly riding. Milk testing for the training of
milk control officers is dealt with fully. In addition,
instruction is given daily, jointly with the High School, in
singing and gymnastics.

There is no farm attached to the school, but those who
finish the term and pass an examination, if they wish for
practical training, are placed as paid assistants on a farm from
April to October, and on this farm they receive instruction
from the owner of the property who works in co-operation
with the school. There are also one or two scholarships of
about 252. each which enable recipients to go elsewhere for
further information or to increase their knowledge by
travelling.

The students of the Agricultural Department must be
19 years of age, and need not undergo an entrance exami-
nation if they have passed out of a State supported High school,

8 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

or any similar institution. For those who have no such
qualification, the chief subjects of the entrance examination
are elementary geometry and surveying, elementary science, and
the principles of book-keeping. The fees are small and in
some cases are not exacted. Lodging seems to be free or
included in the tuition fees, but a charge is made for board —
about Is. per day.

High School Department. Summer Term, for women only : —

The work of this department for girls in the summer is the
same as for men in the winter, except that the term is
shorter ; the science teaching and book-keeping are modified
towards household management, hygiene is prominent, and
sewing is taught. There is no entrance or exit examination,
but students must be over 16 and under 20 years of age.

Household Department. Summer Term, for women only : —

The object of this branch is to train girls to become careful
and efficient home managers, and the scheme is worked on the
same lines as that of the Winter Agricultural School for men.
There is this important difference, however, that the girls
taking the course of the Household Department must be at
least 18 years of age, must have been employed in house
work, and passed through the High School. The programme
of instruction includes elementary chemistry and natural history,
with special reference to the home ; methods of food pre-
paration, cooking, home hygiene, the purchase of household
supplies and furniture, book-keeping, arithmetic, gardening,
and poultry keeping. The term concludes with a public
examination and the issuing of certificates to those students
who satisfy the examiners. The State gives scholarships to
those of small means, and, for the rest the fees are slightly
less than those for the men.

This school is in the midst of an agricultural area
which is as well farmed as any area in England or
Scotland. It adjoins the world famous Swedish Seed Station,
which is presided over by Dr. Nilsson, and it is within a mile
of what is probably the best managed farm in Sweden, so
that it has almost every external advantage. But it would
have succeeded without these advantages, and in England a
similar school forming part of an Agricultural Institute would
be equally successful.

(c) Long Course Schools with no Farm.

Landwirtschaftsschide, Hildesheim (Germany).

On the outskirts of Hildesheim, a city of 56,000 inhabitants,
in the Province of Hanover, is an agricultural school of

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 9

exceptional interest. It combines four functions. In the
first place it is a high class agricultural school (Landwirt-
schaftsschirte) with a three years course, at the end of which
a student who passes a certain examination is exempted from
one year's military service. In the second place, it is a lower
grade agricultural school (Ackerbauselmle) with a course
varying from a year to two and a half years, according to
the previous training of the entrant. In the third place, it
provides a course of two half years for the sons of farmers
who have left school and wish for some agricultural know-
ledge. It is therefore a Winter School of Agriculture 'Land-
wirtschaftliche W interschule) . Lastly — it is the Institute for the
Chamber of Agriculture for the Province of Hanover. For two
other reasons it is of peculiar interest — it is extremely successful
(over 90 per cent, of its pupils take to farming or agricul-
tural pursuits), and it has no farm. At one time a farm was
attached to the school, but it was given up because it inter-
fered with the work of the students and entailed unnecessary
expense. The Director considers, however, that a farm would
be a useful adjunct, provided it was used for demonstration
purposes, and did not involve manual work on the part of
the students. To overcome the want of a farm the students
make numerous excursions in the neighbourhood, and once a
year a prolonged tour of several days. Hildesheim is in the
middle of a fertile plain, intensively cultivated in holdings of
all sizes, and there are several agricultural factories in the
town or near at hand, so that the situation is exceptionally
favourable.

A feature of this school is the minute classification of the
students on entry. Age is not considered, only the previous
training which fits them best for any particular class. For
example, there are five classes in the Landwirtschaftssehule, and
entrance to the two lower is obtained by passing an examina-
tion in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but for the class
above German and French are required in addition. Then for
the third class a leaving certificate from the third class of a
gymnasium, realgyinnasium, or other " privileged " institution is
necessary. For entrance to the two highest classes, a certi-
ficate from a similar agricultural school, or a correspondingly
difficult examination is a necessary qualification.

The same principle is carried out in the Aclerbauschule, in
which there are four classes, but entrance to the lowest is
gained by a certificate from an elementary school. The Winter
School students must be 20 years of age, or possess the certi-
ficate of exemption from one year's military service. Thus
each class is fairly uniform in attainments, and moves into the
higher one with few stragglers or failures.

10 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

In these two schools the fees average about 81. per year.
None of the pupils are in residence, all board and lodge in the
town at an estimated cost of 35Z. a year.

The instruction is of a general character to the extent of
about half the time table, while the remaining half in each
school is given to the ordinary science subjects and to agricul-
ture. In the Winter School the first winter is devoted to
elementary science and the second to agriculture.

In all departments the teaching of agriculture is on very
sensible lines. No attempt is made to teach the technicalities
of farming, only the underlying principles are dealt with, as it
is recognised that the schoolboys have not enough, and the
winter pupils have already enough, practical knowledge, and
therefore technicalities would be mischievous in one case, and
unnecessary in the other. For instance, the details of stock
management are not entered into, but the principles of feeding
are discussed ; the boys of the chemistry class are not taught to
analyse soils, manures, and feeding stuffs, but to understand
and appreciate the analysis ; the botanical students learn their
botany largely from agricultural types, do not become expert
microscopists, but can recognise and identify by external signs
the common fungoid and insect diseases of plants. The Director
believes that a farmer who analyses his own manures and
feeding stuffs, or investigates potato disease with a microscope,
is wasting time which should be employed in managing his
farm, and is doing work which is better and more cheaply done
by an expert, therefore, he argues, why teach the boys what
they cannot afterwards make use of ?

Two other aspects of the work of this school are worthy of
mention, the school garden and the old students' club. The
school buildings stand in a fair-sized garden which is laid out
in small experimental plots and much used for demonstration
and the supply of specimens, but in which the students do no
work. There is also a small orchard, and much of the fruit is
preserved, again as a demonstration to the students. The
garden is evidently a very useful adj iinct. The old students'
association has a membership of 1,600 and meets every year at
the school. It is evidently regarded as an admirable organi-
sation for maintaining interest in the school and its work. As
the Institute of the Chamber of Agriculture for Hanover, the
school is apparently the chief meeting place and general office
of the farmers of the Province.

Though the Hildesheim school is largely engaged in ordinary
school work, possesses no farm, and makes no attempt to teach
practical farming, it has been very successful. It is reasonable
to assume that part of its success is due to the fact that all
the pupils are intended for an agricultural career. As a means
of carrying on the boy who intends to farm, without the hiatus

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 11

of a year or more on a farm at home, it is excellent, and
inspires the hope that schools on similar lines collecting their
pupils from a wide enough area, would be equally successful
in England, when farming opinion has been educated up to
them.

id) Secondary Schools with an Agricultural Side
and with a Farm.

I visited one or two schools of the above description in
Victoria, Australia, in December 1910, and I propose to refer
briefly to them, and especially to one at Ballarat, a district once
famous for the production of gold, now almost equally famous
in Australia for high-class farming.

Ballai'at Agricultural High School.

This school is one of a number which have been organised
in A7ictoria since 1906, for the further education of boys and
girls on the assumption that the majority of the boys would
become farmers, and the majority of the girls would proceed to
higher institutions for training as teachers. The direct aims
of the Agricultural High Schools, so far as the boys are
concerned, have been described as follows : —

1. To give boys such education as will direct their interest
specially towards the land as an excellent means of gaining a
livelihood, and, further, to afford the practical experience and
scientific training necessaiy for success.

2. To magnify agriculture as an occupation and a pro-
fession, so that the boy may leave the school as an interested
labourer, or for further study and practice on an experimental
farm, in an agricultural college, or at the University.

3. To provide a central institution for the dissemination
of agricultural information by evening lectures, conferences, or
literature.

4. To superintend the government experimental plots and
to record and interpret the results.

5. To provide a summer school in agriculture for primary
school teachers.

The following are some of the conditions under which the
Minister of Public Instruction established the schools : —

(a) At least one half of the cost of the necessary buildings

and equipment was contributed by local subscription.

(b) An area of ground of not less than 20 acres was

provided in a position convenient to the High School,
and vested in the Minister.

(c) At least 50 students paying prescribed fees were

guaranteed before a proposal to establish a High
School was entertained.

12 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

(d) Agricultural High Schools were to be under the control of

the Minister, who would be assisted in the questions
affecting the course of study and general policy by a
committee consisting of the Minister of Agriculture,
the Director of Education, and the Director of
Agriculture.

(e) A local council, consisting of not less than five members,

to be appointed by the Governor in Council, was to
be established for each High School district. Its
duty was to exercise a general oversight in matters
affecting their school, to expend the maintenance
allowance allotted to each school, to exercise such
supervision as the Minister may authorise over the
farm operations, and to advise the Minister in all
matters specially pertaining to the school.

The pupils must be 14 years of age and show satisfactoiy
evidence that they are qualified to profit by the course of study
in each school. The local council has the power to nominate
a certain number of students for free instruction, the number
not to exceed 10 per cent, of the total number of paying
students. None of the pupils are resident ; all are boarded in
the neighbourhood under careful supervision. The fees are
about SI. to 101. per annum.

The syllabus of instruction includes the ordinary school
subjects to the extent to which they are carried in the ordinary
grammar school, although the contents of the subjects are
varied, and one-third of the pupils' time is given to agriculture.
Sloyd, farm, handicraft, and drawing are prominent in the
curriculum. The science subjects are chemistry, physical
geography, and climatology ; the agricultural science in the
syllabus is elementary botany and zoology, and from my
observation the methods, which are chiefly experimental and
with a strong agricultural basis, are very efficient. The
" principles of agriculture " deal with soils, particularly
Victorian soils, rotations and cultivation of crops, irrigation,
feeding and general management of farm livestock, ensilage,
first aid to animals, and the general principles of the valuation
of fertilisers, milk and cream, farm crops and animal products.

The farm attached to the school is worked in such a way as
to illustrate the principles laid down in each section of the
syllabus, it is used as a centre of experimental work, and
where it adjoins the school, as at Ballarat, the boys are con-
stantly at work on it. When it is at a distance, the pupils
spend a certain number of hours there each week, and sleeping
accommodation is provided, so that a limited number may, in
turn, see and take part in the whole round of farm work. As
none of the farms are more than five years old, much of the
preliminary work of building, clearing, draining, road making,
&c, has been done by the pupils, and at Ballarat the grounds

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 13

surrounding the school have been laid out, planted, and
kept in order by them. The High Schools exhibit produce,
experimental material, and students' work at the show of the
Royal Agricultural Society at Melbourne ; the competition is
very keen, and no doubt is one of the factors in stimulating the
remarkable interest the boys take in the farm.

I have dwelt upon the agricultural side of the school, but it
must be kept in mind that most of the girls and some of the
boys are hoping to be teachers, or to follow pursuits other than
agricultural, and their education is therefore on more general
lines, and includes languages, and, in the case of the girls,
domestic economy. Mr. Frank Tate, the Director of Education
for Victoria, and the chief promoter of these schools, says that
the reacting effect of the agricultural side upon the ordinary
traditional subjects is great and satisfactory, and encouraged by
these results the Department intends to develop High Schools
with a commercial and an industrial side on precisely similar
lines. Certainly I have never seen more energy and interest
than was displayed by those boys and girls when observed at
work. Mr. Tate says, further, that the fault of the vocational
school in the past has been to make it narrowly technical, a
pregnant opinion. In considering these schools it must be
admitted that Victoria is a better field for them than England.
In Victoria farming is simpler and rougher than in England ;
the farmers in the former country are less prejudiced and more
willing to be instructed, and to have their sons instructed, and
it is much easier to teach a boy of 16 what is obviously useful
and what his father can appreciate. Nevertheless, similar
schools would probably succeed in England if (a) a local interest
could be aroused in them ; (b) the majority of the boys were
intended for farming ; (c) the science masters were as well
trained as the Victorian teachers ; and (d) the land attached
were used as a glorified school garden, and not as a means of
learning farming.

(e) Schools of Practical Agriculture with Farms.

I visited three of these schools in France, but a description
of one near Amiens will be sufficient.

Ecole Pratique a" Agriculture du Paraelet.

The Practical Agricultural Schools of France are over 40 in
number, and they were founded to fill up the gap between the
Ferme Ecole, which is for the sons of labourers, and the
National Agricultural Schools (Ecoles Nationales a" Agriculture)
which are for the sons of large farmers and proprietors. There
was no institution suitable for the sons of small farmers and
peasant proprietors, hence the establishment of the Ecoles

14 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

Pratiques a" Agriculture. These schools have been defined as
" farms of the better class, carried on with a view to profit,
" taking paying pupils who are taught the theory and practice
" of the type of agriculture peculiar to the district in which
" each school is situated." But at Le Paraclet, as elsewhere,
we find the tendency, apparently unavoidable, to develop the
school into the college ; for the prospectus invites the sons of
proprietors and farmers to acquire professional instruction in
agriculture, and young men of good family who, though not
wishing to farm themselves, may desire to find occupation in
the supervision of their estates, or to become agricultural
experts, or to go on to a higher institution. There is no word
here of the peasant fanner.

It is generally allowed that these schools have been successful,
but it is also admitted that they turn out an altogether dis-
proportionate number of young men who have no intention of
cultivating the soil. An examination of the programme and the
management of the school may throw some light on this
phenomenon, and it is worth while to make a close inspection,
for this is a type of school which has been suggested as worthy
of imitation in England.

The school buildings at Le Paraclet comprise chemical,
botanical, and agricultural laboratories ; all old, small,
inadequate and badly furnished. The sleeping rooms are
wanting in privacy and neglected looking, but as some of
the students were on holiday this may be a temporary con-
dition. The farm buildings are large enough, but old, and
not fitted for modern farming ; there is a fine garden and
orchard. The farm extends to about 250 acres and seems to be
very well managed, but the best feature of the practical side of
the school is the collection of implements and machinery, which
include steam, gas, and alcohol engines, and food preparing
rooms, which are models of arrangement and efficiency.

The course of instruction covers three years, and as twenty
students enter every year there are generally sixty in residence.
They must be over 13 and under 18, and they are drawn from
primary and secondary schools and colleges. The require-
ments for entrance are proficiency in French, writing and
composition, arithmetic, history and geography. A knowledge
of agriculture, geometry and elementary science is counted to
the credit of the students. The fees are about 20L per annum,
and there are twenty bursaries.

The syllabus of theoretical instruction is as follows : —

First year. — (1) French grammar and composition,
arithmetic, geometry, surveying and levelling ; (2) moral
and civic instruction, of which some of the sub-headings
are : — the rights of the family and society, sobriety, tem-
perance, economy, ignorance, avarice and vanity, the
government, the department, the commune, &c ; (3)

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium, 15

general agriculture, soils, cultivation and improvement,
laying out of farms, farm buildings ; (4) physics,
chemistry, zoology, botany ; (5) horticulture.

Second year.—(l) Geometry and mensuration, surveying
and levelling ; (2) crops, seed selection, cultivation and
harvesting, implements and machines ; (3) physics,
chemistry, zoology and geology; (4) book-keeping and
accounts ; (5) economics, production, circulation and
distribution of wealth ; (6) horticulture and arboriculture.

Third year.—(l) Algebra, geometry, surveying and levelling ;

(2) rural legislation, agricultural associations, co-operation ;

(3) chemistry, analytical and agricultural ; (4) entomology,
vegetable pathology, apiculture, pisciculture, arboricul-
ture ; (5) special agriculture, special crops, farm motors,
technical agriculture, sugar manufacture, distilling, brew-
ing, &c. ; (6) zoo-technique, study of the anatomy, physio-
logy and pathology of farm animals.

Practical instruction includes the farm opeiations, all of
which are conducted by the students. When the farm was
visited, wheat was being threshed from the stook and nearly
all the labourers were students. The third year students plan
and direct the work of the farm, make excursions to neighbouring
farms, and attend markets. They also make numerous botanical
and geological excursions and visits to factories and breweries,
on the whole spending about half the time in the class-room and
half in the field and on excursions.

The staff comprises 11 teachers, from the Director at the
head to an instructor in handicraft. Some of them are former
students of the National Agricultural Schools (which are a
grade above the school under discussion), and generally speak-
ing they are all well qualified.

Other Schools of Practical Agriculture.

The other schools of Practical Agriculture which 1 inspected
were similar in character, but at one of them at Le Chesnoy,
near Montargis, the course covers only two years, and the in-
struction is less ambitious. At Douai the buildings are modern
and excellent, and the museum and collections of teaching
materials are on the German scale and exceptionally good.

There are several schools of practical agriculture in
Belgium giving instruction in the class room and on the
farm. They are of three grades, the course varying from one
to three years. One of the lower grade was inspected at Huy
near Namur, but nothing was found, worthy of remark.

The fact that Jhese schools are increasing in number, and
that they are popular and well filled, is evidence that they are
sivpplying a certain demand, but that they are reaching the
class for which they are intended is doubtful. They provide
an excellent education — of that there can be no question — and

12842. tj

16 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

they make a convenient stepping-stone to higher agricultural
colleges, and ultimately to the government appointments which
seem to be the ambition of so many young Frenchmen. It
seems fairly clear that many of the parents and students regard
the school as a means to a salaried position and not to efficiency
in farming, for the elaborate and overloaded programme of
theoretical instruction is unsuitable for a prospective small
farmer. In England there are at least two institutions, at
Holmes Chapel and Newport, which are, in almost all essentials,
schools of practical agriculture in the French sense, but it
cannot be asserted that the majority of their students are the
sons of small farmers ; therefore to adopt the French school in
England is to multiply the Holmes Chapel type, possibly with
excellent results, but certainly without providing for the poorer
and smaller class of farmer.

One gets the impression that while the pupils of French
agricultural schools and colleges are learning the ordinary good
jDractice of the district, they are not learning improved methods,
or if they are, the practice of the district is at a low ebb.
Directors of schools and colleges say that they would farm
differently if they were allowed, but they are required to
comply with the custom of the neighbourhood. The criticism
made so long ago by Lawrence Sterne that " the French
conceive better than they execute " recurs to the observer.

Ecole a" Horticulture de VEtat, Vilevoi'de (Belgium).

This is a fine institution near Brussels for the training of
boys of 15 to 17, chiefl}7 in gardening and forestry. There
are about a hundred students, nearly all the sons of farmers and
gardeners, and only 10 per cent, of them do not become
gardeners. They live out and pay no fees, and some of them
come from a distance daily. In addition to the regular pupils who
take the three years' course there are a few " auditeurs libres "
who come for a limited time and attend only the theoretical
instruction. Occasionally one or two women or girls attend this
school, and these have included an American, but no one from
England or Scotland. The buildings are large and well equipped
and the gardens in perfect order and condition. The programme of
class room instruction is elaborate and far beyond any horticultural
instruction given in this countiy . Three hours per day are spent
in the class rooms and three in the garden every day, except Satur-
day, when the whole day is spent outside. The outside work is
organised in five departments over each of which is a Professor
or Director extremely well qualified. The departments are : —

1. Houses (greenhouses).

2. Vegetables.
.3. Orchards.
•1. Flowers.

o. Forestry.

Agricultural Schools in France,-Germ<nnj, and Belgium. 17

There is a colonial section for instruction in tropical culture,
and a Sunday course of lectures for gardeners in employment,
most of whom come from some distance.

The remarkable feature of this institution apart from its
great efficiency, is the fact that the Belgian Government
considers it profitable to give the best possible horticultural
education free of charge to young gardeners.

(/) Agricultural Colleges.

It would add little to the usefulness of this report to describe
the agricultural colleges which I inspected in France, Germany,
and Belgium. They have been dealt with by several writers,
and they do not come within the scope of intermediate agricul-
tural education. It may however be worth while to refer to
the outstanding impressions made by those colleges on one who
has seen some 30 or 40 similar institutions in nine or ten
different countries.

It is generally known that the staffs of continental colleges
are much larger and on the whole better qualified (scientifically)
than ours, but that is a result of time and money, and doubtless
we shall soon reach the same level. It is not so generally
recognised that the teaching equipment is far ahead of ours,
especially in regard to museum specimens and models. Such
colleges as those of Hohenheim or Berlin, or the Agricultural
Department of the Technical High School at Munich, have
collections with which we have nothing whatever to compare.
For example, the Berlin Museum has 344 model ploughs,
perfect in every detail, in addition to 20 or 30 full-sized
ploughs of the most recent construction. This museum is
probably the best in the world, but if we inspect a less famous
centre such as the Agricultural Department in Munich, we
find five or six rooms filled with teaching material of the
most valuable description, not one-tenth of which would be
found in a similar department in this country. It is true that
this visual method of education is carried in German}'- to the
verge of absurdity. In the Deutsche,? Museum in Munich, for
example, much space is given to model fields of grass and
stubble which are being turned over by model ploughs of
various eras, drawn by model oxen or horses, and held by
model labourers, four inches tall, dressed in the costume of the
period. Again, two steam engines about eighteen inches in
length and apparently perfect in every detail are shown in the
act of hauling a model steam plough across a model field covered
with model dung. Several rooms are given up to these and
similar toys, such as working models of self-binders, &c.
Without going to such lengths it is evident that we have much
to learn from Germany in the provision of teaching material,
on the value of which all the professors and lecturers are most
emphatic. On the other hand, Germany has much to learn

18 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

from us in the use of machinery, and one is inclined to assume
that the Germans keep their best machinery in their museums
while we keep ours in the fields, for a journey of a thousand
miles during harvest showed only three self-binders at work,
the rest of the crops being cut with hook and scythe chiefly,
however, upon small farms. Even in the lower grade schools
the collections are more complete and much better classified
than in our highest types of agricultural colleges, and in France
also, though the collections are not generally so good as the
German ones, they are better than ours. Indifference to this
kind of equipment seems to be an Anglo-Saxon characteristic,
for even the rich and lavishly appointed Canadian, Australian,
and American colleges are deficient in this respect.

In some cases the buildings are superior ; at the French
National Agricultural School at Grignon the new buildings,
which are nearly completed, are almost perfect for their purpose
and would be well worth a visit by any English authority con-
templating the erection of College buildings. On the other
hand, the buildings of farm schools and schools of practical
agriculture are often old and out of date.

In the facilities for research, and in the volume of work
turned out, the continental colleges are at present vastly superior.
For example, at Lou vain, in Belgium, the Professor of Zoo-
technique has at his command large and well-equipped stables,
cowsheds, piggeries, and poultry yards, in which are various
breeds and races of domestic animals used entirely for purposes
of research. At the Berlin College is to be found the most up-
to-date apparatus for ascertaining the alimentary income and
expenditure of a horse, ox, or sheep with absolute accuracy.
This respiration chamber costs from 21. to 51. per day when
occupied, by one animal.

At Gembloux, in addition to the fine physical, chemical, and
biological laboratories in which much research is carried on, the
farm is used to provide data for costs. The time and labour
required for various operations are made the subject of exact
inquiry, and crop and stock balance sheets are compiled.

{g) Itinerant Instructors and Womens' Institutes
in Belgium.

In discussing any complete scheme of agricultural education,
reference should be made to the means of instructing the present
generation of farmers and their wives. The most powerful
.levers for their economic and social elevation are the itinerant
instructors and the Womens' Institutes, and both are best
represented in Belgium.

The Itinerant Instructor.

The State Agronomist or itinerant agricultural instructor is
generally admitted to be the chief cause of the wonderful

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 19

improvement which has taken place in Belgian agriculture
during the last quarter of a century. The results of his
instruction can be measured in various ways, and quite
definitely by the agricultural statistics, which show that Belgian
farms produce 10,000,000?. more annually than they did
twenty-five years ago at a cost for every kind of agricultural
education of not more than 40,000?. a year. What is now the
densest population in Europe is almost supported by the
product of its own farms, which yield an average of 20?. per
annum per acre as compared with less than half from British
land.

The State Agronomists, who are stationed, one or more, in
every Commune, met at first with some opposition and much
apathy. For the first few years they delivered single lectures
at any centre likely to produce an audience, but as interest
increased they developed their lectures into courses, and now
they base their instruction on ten groups of subjects from which
a course of fifteen lectures extending over the winter months is
selected.

The groups are : —

1. General conceptions of agriculture.

2. The rational feeding of cattle.

3. Zoo-technique and farm hygiene.

4. The rational treatment of milk, butter, and cheese.

5. Agricultural book-keeping and accounts.

6. The raising of poultry.

7. Rural law.

8. Elementary ideas of rural economy.

9. Co-operation and insurance.
10. Agricultural hydraulics.

A village selects a course from these groups and the State
Agronomist arranges for the instruction, much of which must be
supplied by specialists. As a ride a number of farmers, chemists,
managers of creameries, and accountants, who are qualified by
education and experience to instruct in their own specialities, are
employed for part of the course and paid a fee for each lecture.
A State Agronomist may thus have ten or fifteen colleagues under
his direction and supervision. A somewhat similar procedure
has been tried successfully in Canada. The lines indicated
are those on which some English counties are now working,
with this important difference, that, as a rule, there is no
continuous course of instruction in any one village throughout
the winter. The result of all this mental activity in Belgium
is a rapid increase in rural prosperity, shown not only by
the growth of the national agricultural income, but by the
numerous co-operative societies (some of which contain 50,000
members), stock insurance associations, credit banks, and
farmers' creameries.

12842, 0

20 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

W omens' Institutes.

The success which has folloAved the formation of Women's
Institutes in Poland, the United States, and Canada incited
some social and agricultural reformers in Belgium to organise
similar means of education. It was recognised that the role of the
farmer's wife had not been considered of sufficient importance in
the national economy, and it was shown that the net value of the
produce of the dairy and poultry yard (over which, in Belgium,
the women exercise complete control), was of such dimensions
that if, for no other reason, the farmer's wife required profes-
sional instruction. But the Womens' Institutes do not confine
themselves to such a narrow sphere. They have for their objects
the social and moral improvement of country life, as well as
the increase of farm knowledge, and in all ways they are a
success. In 1906 there were two Womens' Institutes, in 1910
there were 74, and shortly there will be one or more in every
Commune.

The Womens' Institute is an association of farmers' wives,
daughters, and sisters who meet periodically for the following
among other purposes : to hear lectures, read papers, and study
books on professional subjects, i.e., on dairying, poultry keeping,
gardening, and all the minor rural industries ; on cooking,
laundry work, and dressmaking ; on household sanitation, home
hygiene, and ambulance methods ; on the choice and care of
furniture and pictures ; on the rearing and education of children,
and on any other means for the improvement of country life.
The institutes have also a recreative side, and attention is given
to music and literary subjects.

The women work in association with the State Agronomist,
the peripatetic classes, and the local schools of rural and
domestic economy. Assistance is given by the Government
under certain regulations and the members pay a small sub-
scription, but as the conferences and discussions are chiefly
addressed by members, by teachers in State Institutions, and by
others who give their services free, the expenses are not great.

A National Committee co-ordinates all the Institutes, and
one or two periodicals, notably La Fermiere, have been
created for, and are entirely devoted to, the service of the
Institutes. There can be no doubt that these Institutes will
exert an incalculable influence upon the social life of rural
Belgium.

General Conclusions.

After inspecting the institutions mentioned above, and
Aveighing what I have seen of many agricultural colleges and
schools in other countries, the following observations occur to
me in connection with the provision of lower and intermediate
agricultural education in England.

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 21

No system known to me is suitable for adoption in England
en bloc, but much that I have seen is worthy of imitation and
trial.

Most of the systems of intermediate agricultural education
on the continent and in our Oversea Dominions include a
protracted period of manual work on the school farm. This is
unnecessary in Great Britain, for the general farm practice of
England and Scotland is superior to that of any other country,
with the possible exceptions of Denmark and Belgium, and
therefore our agricultural education should be directed mainly
towards change of methods and systems in farming, and to
inculcate an appreciation of the possibilities of improvement of
land, crops, and live stock. A school of practical agriculture,
where half, or more than half the time, is spent in acquiring
manual dexterity and familiarity with such operations as
ploughing, stacking, and threshing, is out of place in England.

When we consider the different farming classes which must
be educated, and begin with the labourer's son, there is no
foreign system better than nature study and school gardening,
followed by continuation classes, lectures, and short courses,
along with training in such arts as stacking, hedging, &c,
where the practice of the district is markedly inferior. The
farm school of France is not worth discussion, as the English
boy can learn his practice when working for wages, and get his
theory from short courses and evening classes.

The sons of small farmers have the same requirements, and
will have the same opportunities as the sons of labourers, and
for each there is the Winter School, the county instructor, and
home reading as further means of education. Schools of the type
of the Schools of Practical Agriculture in France are not for such
boys unless they obtain scholarships, nor is the German '^Farm
School adapted to our conditions, from either the farming or the
national standpoint, for the two summers spent at the school
are so much lost labour to the small farmer without much gain
to the boy, and all such elaborated schools have a tendency to
wean the students from the land to become minor officials or
functionaries.

Secondary schools with an agricultural side or bias, and
agricultural schools pure and simple, will succeed, apparently,
if a large proportion of the pupils intend to follow agriculture ;
if the masters are properly qualified ; if the science teaching-
is sufficiently generalised ; and if no attempt is made to teach
practical farming. In a long course school, purely agri-
cultural, it seems essential that the cultural subjects should
not be neglected, nor the agriculture made too technical. All
secondary schools of agricultural types succeed best when some
land is attached for demonstration purposes.

Judging from Canadian experience, it is a great advantage
to combine as many as possible of these institutions at one

22 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

centre. Starting with a Winter School as the nucleus, it is
used for young men in winter and young women in summer ; it
should also be the headquarters of the county staff ; the school
for vacation and other courses for rural teachers ; the demon-
stration centre, and to some extent the experimental area.
Along with it should be grouped an agricultural school or a
secondary school with an agricultural side, and under ideal
conditions an agricultural college should also form part of the
whole, but as the Winter Schools should be more numerous than
the Colleges, this will not often occur. No one familiar with
the group of institutions known as the Macdonald College in
the Province of Quebec, or the Ontario group at Guelph, can
doubt the advantage of such centralisation.

American experience shows that the functions of a Winter
School or Farm Institute should be interpreted in the widest
sense. They should not only include courses extending over
the winter, but numerous short courses of five or ten days'
duration on such subjects as seed selection and crop improve-
ment, on stock judging, on the handling of farm engines and
machinery, on poultry and bee keeping, &c. It takes time to
create an interest in such courses, but eventually they become
popular, especially where the holdings are smallest and the
farming most backward.

Above all, a Farm Institute, School, or College, should never
lose touch with a student who has once attended it, even if for
only five days. All should be united in an association for
experimentation, for home reading, for mutual help and
competition, and for advice by correspondence. In time, such
associations will stand alone, but at first they need assistance,
both personal and pecuniary, from headquarters. In Canada
and the United States they have become a powerful lever in
the improvement of agriculture, and where they have been tried
in Great Britain the results have been hopeful. The North
of Scotland Agricultural College Old Students' Association
carries on valuable experiments, publishes authoritative papers,
and holds an annual excursion of several days to noted farms
and experiment stations. Its last excursion included over
forty members who paid their own expenses. The great
majority of its members are short course students who have
attended the College for one month only.

Foreign evidence is in favour of co-operative travel as a
means of education, and it should be the function of a group
of Institutes or Farm Schools to provide one or more prizes in
each year in each institution, of such value as will pay the
expenses of a fortnight's tour at home or abroad. The group
of prizemen could travel under the leadership of a suitable
guide, and their eyes would be opened under the best auspices.
In England it used to be, in Scotland it is still, the custom for
the sons of well-to-do farmers to travel for information, and in

Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium. 23

France and Germany much is made of such means of
enlightenment.

Some parts of the curriculum of foreign agricultural schools
might be incorporated in ours with advantage, the moral and
civic teaching of the French schools for example. Apart from
the moral, the civic teaching at least could scarcely fail to be
useful if it dealt with the rights and duties of citizenship, the
duties of parish and county councils, the action and reaction on
the life of the country of the Board of Education, the Board
of Agriculture, &c. Agricultural economics is included in the
teaching programme of some of our Colleges but it might well
form part of the instruction in Winter and Secondary Schools.
A knowledge of the rudiments of economics as applied to land,
labour, and capital, to rent and interest, to the cost of pro-
duction and the law of diminishing returns, has a remarkable
educational effect upon agricultural students, and is no more
difficult to understand than elementary botany.

If there is one feature more than another in the scheme of
Canadian and Australian schools which deserves imitation, it is
the prominence which is given to the business side of fanning.
Book-keeping is taught, but the accurate record of the few
cash transactions of even a large farmer is less important than
the estimates of costs, the profit or loss of each department,
the debt and credit of a field, the food cost of a gallon of milk
or a stone of beef, the manure cost of a quarter of wheat, or
the labour cost of a ton of potatoes. These are calculations to
which the farmer of the future, if he is to be successful, must
devote much of his time, therefore book-keeping in the fullest
meaning of the word should be included invariably in every
long course.

When the potentialities of English agriculture are con-
trasted with the actual production there can be little doubt
that many of the English farmers are not " up to their work,"
and, as we cannot assume that they are less intelligent than the
Danish or Belgian farmer, it follows that they will benefit
equally from education. The method of technical education
which has been most successful in Belgium is that of itinerant
instruction, and, though the prevalence of small holdings in
Belgium has favoured the Instructor, good results have been,
and better results will be, obtained here by the same means.
The small holder and the large farmer are the first to take
advantage of technical instruction and scientific knowledge,
and it has been unfortunate for English agriculture that the
majority of English cultivators are medium or working farmers
(sometimes erroneously called " practical " men), for these are
the most difficult to convince. But even the "practical " man
was found in large numbers in Belgium at one time, and he
has been reformed by the State Agronomist. The " practical "
man of this country can also be moved by the County Instructor,

24 Agricultural Schools in France, Germany, and Belgium.

if the Instructor is well educated in science and practice, if lie
has an intimate knowledge of his district and of the chief
farmers in it, and if he is able to select his lectures to suit his
audience and to apply to the locality.

Those qualifications are not always found together in an
English County Instructor.

Perhaps the most profitable outlet for the expenditure of
energy and public money in the improvement of agriculture
will be found in widening the mental horizon of the farmer's
wife, and especially the wife of the labourer, small holder,
and working farmer. It is certain that if farmers' wives
believed in agricultural education our schools and colleges
would be full. Other wives are concerned professionally only
with the care of a house and children, but the farmer's wife is a
partner in his business. On her good management of the diary,
poultry yard, and piggery much of his profit depends, and she
almost alone is responsible for the health of the household and
most of its comfort. Here is an opportunity for women to
organise Institutes for instruction dealing with improvement
of country life, an opportunity to increase the comfort and pros-
perity of the home, to stem the tide of rural depopulation, and
heal a national canker. The women of other countries have
accepted the opportunity and risen to the occasion, and the
Governments of other countries have assisted them liberally
with grants.

It is in accordance with the genius and temperament of the
English to build on existing foundations rather than to clean
the slate and begin anew, and there is nothing to show in any
case that the latter would be the better course. With the
existing machinery directing the symmetrical growth of the
organisation, stimulating the backward, developing the em-
bryonic, occupying the vacancies and lopping off excrescences,
a system of agricultural education equal or superior to any other
can be evolved. No country offers a better opportunity. Its
climates, soils, and markets are second to none of the European
countries. England can be made a profitable garden by
intelligent effort, and the revival of British agriculture depends
largely, in 1113' view mainly, 011 the energy, enthusiasm, and
especially on the bold optimism of the exponents of agricultural
education and research.

. I desire to express my gratitude for the conscientiousness
displayed by Directors of Agricultural Schools and Colleges in
carrying out the instructions of their Departments to give me
every facility for obtaining information, and I wish also to
record my appreciation of the cordiality with which I was
received.

R. B. Greig.

{ 25 )

The following Educational Pamphlets, issued by the Board
of Education, have been placed on Sale :—

School Doctors in Germany.

By W. H. Dawson. (1908.) Price Qd.

The Problem of Rural Schools and Teachers in North America.
By Ethel H. Spalding. (1908.) Price Qd.

Report on Science Teaching in Public Schools represented on
the Association of Public School Science Masters.

By Oswald H. Latter. (1909.) Price U. '

Compulsory Continuation Schools in Germany.
By H. A. Clay. (1910.) Price U.

The Course System in Evening Schools.

By H. T. Holmes. (1910.) Price 3d.

Report on the Teaching of Latin at the Perse Grammar School,
Cambridge. (Educational Experiments in Secondary
Schools, No. i.) (1910.) Price Qd.

A School Week in the Country. Bradford, Grange Road
Secondary School, Girls' Department, (Educational Ex-
periments in Secondary Schools, No. ii.)

By Miss Mary A. Johnstone. (1910.) Price 4r7.

Syllabus of Mathematics for the Austrian Gymnasien.

Translated by Mr. E. A. Price. (1910.) Price 2d.

The Training of Women Teachers for Secondary Schools. A
series of Statements from Institutions concerned. (1912.)
Price 8d.

The Montessori System of Education.

By E. G. A. Holmes. (1912.) Price 2d.

These pamphlets can be obtained, either directly or through any
Bookseller, from WYMAN and SONS, Ltd., 109, Fetter Lane,
EC ami 32, Abingdon Street, Westminster, S.W. ; or H.M.
STATIONERY OFFICE (Scottish Bkanch), 23, Forth Street,
Edinburgh • or E. PONSONBY, Ltd., 116, Grafton Street,
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