AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. Ill 



for each school — as near to its threshold as 

 possible — means expense. 



2. Next, there should be agricultural 

 training farms made available to boys on 

 leaving the elementary schools. Let there 

 be no fear that millions of would-be farmers 

 would have to be provided for if this were 

 done. Despite what effort had been made 

 before to instil the fascination of growing 

 things into the children, there would be no 

 clamorous rush of boys to these training 

 farms. But they would appeal to some. 

 With so many idle fields calling for tillers, 

 it would pay from every point of view to 

 give the British boy of poor parents, on 

 leaving his elementary school, the alternative 

 of going to a training farm instead of be- 

 coming an errand boy.* These training 



* Since writing this I notice that the Committee on Rural Educa- 

 tion of the Central and Associated Chambers of Agriculture has issued 

 a report which states that " though, according to the evidence given 

 before the Rural Education Conference, very few farmers took any 

 trouble in teaching the lads they employed, or interested them in 

 agricultural work, some arrangement might be devised whereby 

 specially promising boys might be taken from the elementary schools 

 as wage-earning pupils. These boys would still be under the educa- 

 tion authority, and could attend continuation classes for two after- 

 noons in the week. Instructional or apprenticeship farms might 



