7 o THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



pass five winter months and three summer months respectively 

 under the influences of the " living word " of the teachers, and of 

 congenial comradeship. They have their mental horizons widened 

 and their life is lifted on to a higher plane. From these schools 

 have sprung the agricultural schools, the pupils of which are of 

 the same age, and come to the schools with a considerable know- 

 ledge of farming. There are about 80 High Schools and 20 

 Agricultural Schools in the country. To these schools not only 

 peasant farmers, but agricultural labourers go in winter to study 

 history, literature, political economy, hygiene, and many things 

 besides. Every year some ten thousand students, a good third 

 of whom are agricultural labourers, spend the " dead " months 

 in the High Schools and they all spread the light when they are 

 back in their villages, for they try, by lecturing and leading 

 debates, to teach their comrades what the school professors have 

 taught them. These debates are an unfailing source of delight 

 to many of the peasants among whom they do a wonderful 

 work, not only brightening their wits, but keeping alive their 

 interest in things outside their village. 



Sir Daniel Hall's point that the worker could only properly 

 acquire a " vocational " education by working on the land 

 and learning from those who were themselves skilled, came 

 up again before the Club a year later, when Sir Arthur 

 Hazlerigg introduced the subject of " Apprenticeship in 

 Agriculture." In a characteristic exordium he observed :- 



I apologise before I begin for the defects of this Paper, but 

 I've never read a Paper before and would not have done so now 

 but for the fact that when I sent in my name as a member of 

 this Club (merely for the purpose of listening to others' superior 

 wisdom) I ventured to suggest that the subject of training 

 youths and others to become skilled agricultural labourers might 

 provide an interesting topic of discussion. Your Chairman 

 immediately replied agreeing with my suggestion, and asking 

 me to read a Paper on the subject : he may have meant it 

 kindly (at least I will give him the benefit of the doubt) any- 

 how, there seemed to be nothing for me to do but accept. 

 The reasons for my suggesting the subject were two : 

 (i) That when I was asked to act as Chairman of the Leicester- 

 shire and Rutland District Wages Committee, I at once 

 asked what the definition of an agricultural labourer 

 was without getting any satisfactory reply. (Since then 

 it appears to have been decided that any ordinary, 

 able-bodied man is an " Agricultural Labourer.") 



