iSo 



NA TURE 



[February 14, 1895 



niL-t with in most parts of the coanlry arises from the suspicion 

 with which the spoilt " practical man " regards the whole scheme 

 of edacation designed to benefit him. No class harbours this 

 p- ' - -e than farmers ani their labourers. .-Mmost every 

 1 V compliins of the apathy, or the opposition, of 



a^: ;o the extension of knowledge in the scientific 



priDCipici of agriculture. When the Derbyshire Committee 

 approiched this branch of their work, thev hesitated to establish 

 a/riculture classts under the auspicc-s of the Department of 

 Science and Art, because such classes arc open to undesirable ob- 

 jections from this section of the community. In the first place, 

 there is an appearance of attempting to tench '• farminj; " in the 

 lecture-room, and secondly, the teachers who are qualified to give 

 most of the information contained in the Science and Art syllabus, 

 are usually not actually engaged in the agricultural industry 

 itself li )th these difficulties have been cleverly met by the 

 Committee in this way ; — " In place of the ' Agriculture ' Classes 

 of the Science and Ait Deimtment, the Committee are anxious 

 that the students in rural evening schools shall go through a 

 course of elementary science, which shall be of a very simple 

 bat thoroughly scientific nature. It is intended that the s'udent 

 shall be taught by actual experiment, and shall thus come to 

 apprecijte that the results of science are not fanciful, but are 

 con:lusions drawn from a study of actual facts. The phenomena 

 studied in this coarse of lessons are of n general character, but 

 are also largely chosen from the domain of agriculture, so that 

 without any suspicion that the schoolmaster is attempting to 

 leich ' farming.' the student learns a number of principles 

 which cannot fail 1 1 aOTect him in practice. 



"The great merits of th's scheme of teaching elementary 

 science in rural evening schools in |>lace of starting Science and 

 Art Department 'Agriculture Classes are that the students 

 are kept together year a'ter year, studying other subjects which 

 go to make up the curriculum, the liienientary Science course 

 extending over two or three years, so that a first set of pupils is 

 ready when the older ones have passed through ; and further, 

 there is no suspicion of teaching what can only be learned on 

 ihtfarm." 



The scheme is very attractive, and good results may be 

 expected from its a|<plicaiion in Derbyshire. It enforces the 

 fact thr.'. a kn iwled^e of the eUinentnry princiides of science is 

 the only sound basis upon which to build courses of technology. 

 The county of Derby is more dependent upon the mining 

 industry than on any other: therefore its organisation of instruc- 

 tion in mining deserves a word of remark. It attempted to 

 provide the instruction by means of courses of lectures delivered 

 in a certain number of pit villages, but the results were hardly 

 successful. The leaching was afterwards given by local mtn 

 who had practical kno*leilge of mining, and some acquaintance 

 with collateral branches of science, and this scheme was more 

 satisfactory than the former. The point to ije borne in mind 

 in all such cases is that chemistry, steam, geology, some 

 branches of physics, and mechanical drawing should form a 

 part of the education of every mining student. With refer- 

 ence to local teachers, a word may be necessary. There 

 is, of course, a tendency in many districts to p.ilronise 

 local ability, but it should always be botne in mind that the 

 local man is not of necessity the man who will do best. In the 

 expenditure of public money, it ought to be a guiding principle 

 that the best teachers available by adverliiemcnt and good 

 salaries >hould always be selected. 



The evergreen complain; of Technical Education Committees 

 linds expression in the report from iJerbyshire. In connection 

 with the subject of evening continuation schools, we read : 

 "The Comniiilee hive found that one of ihe great dilticullics 

 which Ihe ordinary student experiences in receiving instruction 

 in every kind of technical subject is the lack of sulhcient pre- 

 liminary knowledge. His elementary school education has 

 very lar^fely leaked away, instead of having been continued to 

 the point giving caiy compiehension of .scientific principles ami 

 problems. Thii iinplie* that llic national expenditure on 

 elementary education is very largely wasted without some 

 supplementary scheme by which the instruction given shall be 

 conserved and continued until the student is old enough to grasp 

 ils importance." This puts the wh'de matter in a nutshell. 

 When the average boy leaves the elementary school, at about 

 fourteen years of age, he legaids his education as completed, with 

 the result that he has no iniercsl whatever in schools or classes 

 of any educational value. Committees nui-! not hope to attract 

 the ma;oriiy of working lads into evening c 'n'inualion schools, 



NC. T320, VOL. 51] 



however diversified their prospectuses may be. Only here and 

 there can pupils be found who have begun to see the depths 

 of their ignorance, but these are the minds to nurture, and for 

 their benefit systems of evening-classes should be constructed. 



Before the era of the County Councils, the principal means for 

 the spread of instruction in elementary science was undoubtedly 

 the classes of the Science and Art Department. Testimony is 

 borne to this in the report referred to. We read : 



"It has been the custom in many educational quarters to 

 criticise and condemn the methods of that Department, and to 

 create an impression that but little good has been .accomplished. 

 The contrar)' of this is undoubtedly the case. In all manu- 

 facturing centres it will be found thtt there are numbers of 

 persons applying to every kind of industry scientific princi|ilcsand 

 knowledge gained at Science and Art Classes, and which could 

 not have been gained anywhere else during the last thirty-five 

 years." The Department is very well able to take care of itself, 

 but this statement of fact may be profitably considered by those 

 who disparage its usefulness. 



If there is one thin^' our educational system lacks more 

 than ano her, it is proper facilities for secondary education. 

 Recognising that a good education in a secondary school is 

 the only means by which the highest branches of technical 

 instruction could be approached, the Derbyshire Committee 

 ofl'ered for competition sixty scholarships tenable at secondary 

 schools. After Ihe awards had been made, it ».as fou d that 

 only six out of the sixty successful candidates chose schorls in 

 the county, and that there was only one school in the adminis- 

 trative county av.ailable for the girls who had won scholarships. 

 An inspection of the Grammar Schools, and similar institutions 

 in the county, with a view to determining their cduca ional 

 conditions and needs, revealed a general want of proper equip- 

 ment ; indeed, only one out of nine secondary schools had a 

 chemical laboratory. Derbyshire is certainly not alone in this 

 deplorable stale of things, which it will lake some years to im- 

 juove. The fact tha' the defects in our educational ^ystcm are 

 being exposed, and that attempts .are being made to meet them 

 fairly, is a clear promise of progress. If ihe Technical In- 

 struction Committees had done no more than reveal the in- 

 efficiency and insudiciency of scientific instruction in the counties 

 of England, they would have furthered the interess of science. 

 But as they have also helped to organise and increase Ihe 

 facilities for such instruction, ihey have worked in no mean w.ay 

 for the extension of nitural knowledge. En-ouragement and 

 friendly guidance is all that is reipiired to render the work even 

 more valuable in tlie future thin it has been in the p.ast. 



R. A. CiREC.ORV. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



T7IRST in importance among the contributions lothe February 

 magazines is a collection of opinions on forest preserva- 

 tion, published in the Cenliiry. In response to a request from 

 the editor of that magazine, a number of persons interested in 

 arboriculture sent iheir views as to the general need of a 

 thorough, scientific, and permanent system of f ircst manage- 

 ment in the United Stales, and specifically as to the plan 

 suggested by I'roC C. .S. Sirgent, which comprised the follow- 

 ing features : — 



(1) Forestry instruction at West Point ; the esl.ablishment of 

 a chair of l-'oreslry at the United Slates Military Academy, to 

 be supplemented by practical study in Ihe woods and by per- 

 sonal iiispeclion of foreign systems of forestry. 



(2 All tvpcrimental forest reservation ; the purchase on the 

 Highlands near West Point, or elsewhere, of a small territory 

 lor the use of the proposed new branch of instruction. 



(3) Control by educated officers; the assignment ol the best 

 educated of these officers to the supervision of Ihe forest 

 reservations. 



(4) The enlistment of a forest guard : a body of local 

 foresters, lo be specially enlisted for the purpose ol carrying 

 out the principles ol forestry thus taught. . 



The experts consulted agree in the opinion that the United 

 States needs a thoroughly .scientific and permanent system of 

 forest management in the interests of the people of tiday, and 

 of future generations. Hut the general feeling seems to be that 

 the management of ihc forests should not be placed under any 

 military organisation. As lo the suggestion to incicase the 

 (.urriculum of the U.S. Military Academy so as to cover 



