i5o A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



a position that will make him regard the rural 

 school as an end in itself, and not merely the 

 lowest rung in a ladder of promotion whose 

 top is always in a large town school. The 

 establishment of efficient rural Central Schools 

 under the Act of 191 8 will help in this direction 

 as well as in bringing together children from 

 neighbouring villages. It is no small educa- 

 tional gain to bring the child-mind of one 

 village into contact with other minds in a 

 similar stage of development from other 

 villages. 



Without the large farm and communal 

 management, improved education will be of 

 little value to the village itself. The life of 

 the adult in the country must be one that an 

 ordinarily cultured mind can live with self- 

 respect before the advantages of sound general 

 education will do other than urge the scholar 

 to seek more congenial surroundings in the 

 town, or in the more democratic atmosphere of 

 the Colonies. 



The increase of the rural population that 

 would come with the more economic manage- 

 ment of farming, the establishment of many 

 industries now unknown in the villages, — both 

 these factors would co-operate with the im- 

 provement of education to provide an outlet 

 in agriculture for personal aptitudes that are 

 now unwanted by those who control the rural 

 life of England. The early technical training 



