AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 105 



the squalid horrors of the South London slums 

 vacant lands used temporarily as vegetable 

 plots, tilled by workers under a system organized 

 by a charitable society. City schools denied a 

 permanent garden might secure in the same way 

 temporary gardens. But in most cases a per- 

 manent garden could be secured within a pos- 

 sible distance. It is an economic waste, as well 

 as a cruelty, to keep school children confined 

 during school hours to dismal buildings and 

 more dismal gravelled playgrounds. A tiny 

 patch of rural England to be attached to every 

 Board school is the first step I would suggest 

 for the regeneration of rural England. If in giving, 

 say, six hours a week to its care, school children 

 lose a little of the mysteries of square root or 

 neglect some of the dates of English battles, 

 there will be nothing to moan at in the ex- 

 change. 



After taking care that the infant child should 

 have from the beginning the opportunity of 

 learning a filial duty to Mother Earth, a typical 

 Australian State provides a linked system of 

 agricultural colleges and experimental farms. 

 The " college " is also an experimental farm, 



4a 



