8o THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



the men have to learn in the harvest field when every moment 

 of fine weather is valuable. When the machine had been ex- 

 plained, while running, and then stopped, I should like to see a 

 labourer's son and a landowner's son crawl under a binder and 

 set to work to tighten up screws and working parts that had 

 been wilfully loosened by the demonstrator to afford a lesson 

 in repairs, to show how easy it is to remedy a defect if one has 

 an intimate knowledge of the machine. 



Then in the larger part of my school I would have dummy 

 wooden stack tops, with a covering of moss litter or other sub- 

 stance that would hold a peg, and teach thatching- all three 

 classes waiting on each other and learning to thatch in turn. 

 On another spot dummy rows of mangel, represented by pegs, 

 could be utilised to teach hoeing. And I would let all backs 

 ache in common sympathy while a friendly race was run as to 

 who could finish in best style and quickest. Dummy hedges 

 could be plashed and layered ; dummy stacks built and rebuilt 

 with sheafs of reed or other article about the same weight as 

 corn. If one really set out to improvise substitutes for actualities, 

 all farmwork could be taught and handled with almost the exacti- 

 tude of work in the field. Branches of trees could be brought 

 in to serve for demonstrations in pruning and planting fruit 

 trees ; sheafs of corn brought to make examples of hand picking 

 corn for seed ; green crops could be stored in small quantities 

 to show the fermentation necessary for ensilage ; small pits of 

 roots, some carefully and others badly pitted, could be made 

 outside to show the wastefulness of careless pitting ; stock 

 could be brought to serve as patients for imaginary first aid 

 in the most frequently occurring diseases or sicknesses. 



I am convinced of one thing that if my imaginary school could 

 be started and it was made attractive enough, simple enough and 

 wide enough, the audience would be there some for a joke, some 

 from curiosity, and some from suspicion, to see how and what they 

 could criticise all of which tendencies would work into regular 

 attendance by the inborn desire for knowledge that we all possess. 

 Not only would the pupils gain a knowledge of Agriculture and 

 its attractions, but the school would be the means, by friendly 

 examinations and competitions, of uniting in common sympathy 

 all classes engaged in it. It would help to a larger output of 

 agricultural products and go a long way to dispel the mutual 

 suspicion of each other in each class which, I believe, is such a 

 bad factor in Agriculture to-day. 



There is always a certain tinge of pathos in any constructive 

 scheme, and if my ideal of education of the inter-dependent classes 

 of farming were to materialise, and all united for the common 

 benefit, one pathetic effect might be created the disappearance 

 of the Agricultural Wages Board. 



