462 NATURAL SCIENCE. august. 



Few men like to be told of their faults, but there are, indeed, many 

 excellent exceptions to be met with among the younger men in the 

 gardening class. It is astonishing how little real interest in his work 

 is manifested by the average so-called gardener, but we have had 

 considerable experience among them of ability and earnest desire to 

 benefit by the opportunities placed before them. This, perhaps, is 

 especially so where their employers are not wholly ignorant of the 

 principles underlying sound cultivation. 



The most promising work is seen when the gentry of the district 

 are interested in the movement, and estimable examples of self- 

 sacrifice and genuine regard for the education of the labouring classes 

 have been met with in several parts of Surrey. A clergyman, in one 

 instance, went to the trouble and expense of hiring a " Technical 

 Education Van," to convey ten or fifteen people to the lectures from 

 a neighbouring village during the whole winter. Aid in many ways 

 has been given for carrying out the scheme, and supplementary 

 teaching has been voluntarily undertaken. 



Taken as a whole, the centres whose appreciation stands highest, 

 and where the interest has been well maintained throughout, are 

 comparatively small villages. There the organisation is more easily 

 managed, and there is less likelihood of complication arising from 

 attempts to do too much. 



The least successful places are those which are neither towns 

 nor villages, but hybrids between the two. Want of unanimity of 

 sentiment is prevalent among the population, and discontent some- 

 times arising into a species of party feeling is a block to progress. 



In such districts failures are met with which must be attributed, 

 however, to attempts at too diversified a programme. One of the 

 greatest dangers to be guarded against is that which arises from 

 burdening a district with excessive educational opportunities. It is 

 impossible for anyone engaged in manual labour all day to keep up 

 healthy mental exercise after his daily work, and yet many attempt 

 this, only to become disgusted with the scheme in the end. In one 

 of our districts, where results were distinctly worst, bond fide students 

 were found suffering from want of leisure. Every evening from 

 Monday to Saturday was occupied in some kind of improvement, and 

 time to digest the mental pabulum was missing. 



The work which is being inaugurated throughout the country, 

 and which we hope is in a fair way towards completion so far as its 

 preliminary arrangements are concerned, is destined, if properly 

 carried out, to bring about a material and social advance among the 

 masses. No class is more in need of this than the rural population, 

 and we can hardly help thinking that the easiest way of improving 

 the worker in the fields, both in regard to his efficiency and his 

 influence as a factor of society, is by giving him increased interest in 

 his occupation by education, such as is being attempted by the County 

 Council. Nothing seems to be more certain than that the possession of 



