Education and Agriculture 



understand a plan and also to make a simple 

 one would certainly be useful ; but with all the 

 time now spent on drawing it is obvious that 

 this instruction is not effectually given, for, 

 taken as a whole, English workmen, even intel- 

 ligent ones, are slower at understanding a plan 

 than workmen of other nationalities. In a 

 furniture factory which I went over a few years 

 ago, I found one or two French or Italian work- 

 men employed to translate the drawings to the 

 English workmen, who seemed unable to un- 

 derstand the relief of a panel of carving, for 

 instance, from the light and shade shown in 

 the drawings, though when once started their 

 work was equal, if not superior, to that of the 

 foreigners. 



It is only now, after having written many 

 pages upon the general aspects of the problem, 

 that I feel I can approach that special phase of 

 it which concerns or should concern itself with 

 the training of those who are going to work 

 upon the land — in other words, with Rural 

 Education. 



One or two preliminary statements must be 

 made, for though probably they are no longer 

 necessary, it is well to be on the safe side. 



It is still sometimes said of those who are 

 endeavouring to reform rural elementary educa- 

 tion, that their aim is to produce cheap labour 

 for the farmer. It is also said, as a sort of 



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