RURAL EDUCATION 31 



Government (Agriculture and Education) combine 

 together to promote in every way the teaching of 

 husbandry in rural schools. Their joint object, freely 

 expressed in reports and speeches, is not only to 

 improve agriculture, but "to inspire the young with a 

 love of country life," so as to keep them permanently 

 on the land. They regard any tendency towards 

 migration as a national misfortune to be counteracted 

 in every possible way. In this course they are backed 

 up by the Government and by public opinion. In- 

 stead of ;!^ 1 36,000, which is the sum placed at the 

 disposal of our Board of Agriculture for all purposes, 

 the French Department of Agriculture is credited by 

 the State (1904) with ^1,759,000.^ 



The yearly grants in aid given by our Board of 

 Agriculture to agricultural institutions of various kinds 

 amount to only ;!^ 10,000, while the vote for agricul- 

 tural education in France has reached the sum (1899) 

 of no less than ^152,460." 



Agricultural teaching is compulsory only in the 

 elementary schools of France ; but in order to have 

 no idle interval in the child's education, a new class of 

 schools was established by the Act of 1875, which 

 are practically continuation primary schools. They 

 are for the children of labourers, peasants, and small 

 farmers, who can enter at the age of thirteen on leav- 

 ing the elementary schools. 



^ "Consular Report No. 3172 on the French Budget for 1904." 

 2 " Consular Report No. 505 on Agricultural Education in France, 

 1899.'' This is, of course, in addition to the large sums voted by Local 

 Authorities for the same purpose. In the small kingdom of Wiirtcmberg 

 (about the size of Wales), with a revenue of about four and a half millions 

 sterling, the State grant was ^^72,550 for the promotion of agriculture. 

 This is in addition to grants for veterinary matters and for the manage- 

 ment of woods and forests. 



