82 LAND SETTLEMENT & EDUCATION 



for the evening school, although effective in the 

 town, does not meet the need of a country popula- 

 tion. 



But to grant that the development of the Manual 

 Method in all elementary schools is necessary, and 

 to decide to introduce it as an excellent and neces- 

 sary training for all children, whatever career they 

 may adopt, is only part of the task before us. 

 Another question is : How is the interest in the 

 land and in agriculture to be stirred ? The very 

 first thing to do, it seems to me, is to rid our country 

 schools of their urban atmosphere ; they must no 

 longer be " little town schools situated in the 

 country," but the entire school life must be linked up 

 with the village hfe, and so become not only an 

 integral part of it but indeed the centre from which a 

 new and better rural life shall spring. Every school 

 must have its garden, to be used, not for turning 

 out little make-believe gardeners, but rather as a 

 blackboard on which as much of the general school 

 work as possible shall be done. 



In time we should see many schools with a 

 school co-operative society run commercially. This 

 society would deal with pigs, rabbits, poultry, bees, 

 and the produce of the garden. It would teach 

 business methods ; arithmetic and book-keeping 

 would be taught in connection with its work, but 

 above all it would teach the children the chief 

 duties of the citizen : mutual assistance and the 

 necessity of subordinating individual interests to 

 the good of the group. It would incline the rising 

 generation to avail themselves of co-operation in 

 every walk of life. Our rural population appreciates 

 the advantages of co-operation less than almost any 

 other race, and yet it is only by the fullest develop- 



