466 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



that textbooks should be brought into concordance with 

 their immediate surroundings and that, for instance, in 

 the teaching of arithmetic, " teaching should relate to the 

 payment of rent, real measurements of fields, calculation 

 of fields' produce, etc., all things which will prove useful 

 later on." We see this demand put in the forefront of the 

 development of Agriculture in all civilised countries, made 

 a study of, liberally assisted with funds. And we see how 

 it bears fruit. It is not " schoolmaster- governed " Germany 

 alone which gives proof of the efhcacy of such policy. Indeed 

 Germany itself was not so very long ago only a learner in this 

 policy, being taught mainly by Switzerland and Denmark, 

 but to a great extent by ourselves. We see our kinsmen 

 across the Atlantic pushing onward vigorously on this path, 

 Canada in some respects manfully leading the way, the 

 United States sparing no money and no effort, and impreg- 

 nating the system with the right principle, which is, in 

 agricultural schools to train agriculturists. Elementary 

 schools in countr}^ districts there teach Agriculture almost 

 universally, and almost as a matter of course, as a by-subject. 

 But above all things pains are taken in rural schools to main- 

 tain and intensify a rural "atmosphere." We see Switzer- 

 land educationally thoroughly organised, Denmark — in this 

 respect — raised far above ourselves on the foundation laid 

 by Grundtvig and his collaborators, that is, a basis, not of 

 technical teaching, but of methodically preparing the mind 

 for the reception of every description of knowledge. We 

 see France busy with its Departmental Directors, and its 

 Agricultural Syndicates, of which Lord Reay, surely a good 

 authority, has testified that they " work wonders." We 

 ourselves possess shining lights in the matter of Agricultural 

 Science and Education — lights which need fear comparison 

 in brilliancy with no others. We have Cambridge, Oxford, 

 and other centres, pushing on lustily on the path of dis- 

 covery and teaching. And we have a Board of Agriculture 

 vvliich certainly does not neglect teaching Education so 

 far as its power goes, and whose leallels are admirable. 

 However, our light for the most part still " shines in dark- 

 ness," because, among the upper classes, which in Germany 



