434 LAND REFORM 



practical and low in price. There are hundreds of these 

 lower-grade schools scattered throughout Germany, all care- 

 fully adapted to meet the different needs. For peasants' 

 sons who have left the elementary schools and cannot, during 

 the summer, be spared from the work of their fathers' 

 holdings, there are winter schools established in which the 

 fees are as low as 25s. the term. Farming schools are also 

 set up in which the pupils pay no fees at all, but receive 

 board and lodging in return for their labour. In all these 

 schools the deficiencies are covered by grants from the State. 

 In the instruction given in all of them theory and practice 

 go together — learning by doing being the rule. 



A few months ago 1 visited a typical agricultural school in 

 the village of Zwatzen, near Jena, in the Grand Duchy of 

 Weimar. It is a school for children of small farmers and of 

 peasant proprietors. Most of the pupils come direct from 

 the common schools. Through the kindness and courtesy of 

 Dr. Otte, the Principal, and of Dr. Elsassen, one of the pro- 

 fessors, I was enabled to examine the whole economy of the 

 schools, and perhaps it might be interesting to quote from a 

 few notes made on the spot. The farm, forty acres, and the 

 buildings belong to the State. The instruction given 

 comprises botany, geology, chemistry, and other sciences ; 

 butter and cheese making, land surveying, mechanics, etc. 

 There are seventy lads in the school, strong, robust-looking 

 youths, a few of them apparently as much as eighteen years 

 old or more. Their working hours are divided between labour 

 on the farm and lessons in the class-rooms. The stock of 

 the farm consists of twelve cows and two bulls. There is 

 also a number of horses, pigs, poultry, etc. The cows and 

 bulls are worked about six hours a day (cows in calf are 

 worked very little). It is held that cows when worked yield 

 milk less in quantity than usual, but better in quality. The 

 pigs are kept very clean and have fresh straw every day, it 

 being recognized that the pig is naturally a very cleanly 

 animal. There are no hired permanent labourers except one 

 man to teach milking, the whole work of the farm being 

 done by the pupils. During the holidays temporary men 

 are employed to do what is necessary. The buildings are 



