346 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
About 12 per cent. of the schools have sent one or two boys yearly out to Australia, 
New Zealand, or Canada. 
The inquiry undertaken by this Committee was suggested by the fact that very 
few boys seem to have entertained the prospect of a career in agricultural occupations. 
Its object has been to find out to what extent provision is made in secondary schools 
for developing a boy’s natural bias towards life on the land, or for giving girls some 
practical training in those modern operations associated with farm life. 
This inquiry has been carried out mainly by means of a questionnaire addressed 
to the headmasters and headmistresses of some 500 secondary schools (see page 357). 
Information has also been sought from the Board of Education as to any reports 
that may have been previously issued on the subject, from Directors of Education or 
Chairmen of Higher Education Sub-Committees of various counties, and from 
Directors of Education in the overseas Dominions as to their opinion on what might 
be done in our schools to prepare boys and girls for overseas life. Various institutions, 
such as the League of Empire, Public Schools Employment Bureau (Overseas Section), 
Victoria League, Overseas Settlement Office, have also been informed of our inquiry, 
and suggestions and opinions have been invited. 
In a prefatory note to the questionnaire, the Committee pointed out that there 
are to be found in most schools a percentage of boys and girls whose capacities would 
be better developed by the study of the principles underlying agriculture, or related 
subjects, than by more academic studies in literature, mathematics, and science. 
Practical work on the land and the introduction of agricultural problems in the 
science laboratory would awaken their interest and stimulate their activities. The 
provision of such opportunities, it is believed, would lead to better work in other 
subjects which hitherto had not appealed to many boys or girls. Moreover, it would 
bring home to their minds the possibility of a career in one of the Dominions overseas 
more suited to their temperament and ability than any which the restricted oppor- 
tunities in the home country could possibly offer. 
The Committee invited expressions of opinion from headmasters and other 
authorities who have had experience of providing school occupations for boys and 
girls from the age of fifteen upward as to (1) the advantage of allotting part of the 
school hours to a plan of work in which, though the outlook is vocational, the training 
is really educational ; (2) the practicability of introducing a scheme where work on 
the land forms part of the school curriculum, at least for a section of the school, or 
in the absence of any facilities for such operations, the practicability of giving to the 
manual instruction, and work in the science laboratories, a distinctly agricultural bias. 
The Committee wish to express their cordial thanks to those headmasters and 
headmistresses who assisted the work of inquiry by answering the questionnaire, 
and to the various secretaries and Directors of Education who contributed of their 
experience, suggestions, and opinions on the problems presented. Particularly do 
they wish to acknowledge the valuable contribution made by Canon Sewell, Chairman 
of the Gloucestershire Higher Education Sub-Committee, and that by the Director 
of Education for New Zealand. 
I. BOYS’ SCHOOLS. 
The following is an abstract of the replies received to the questionnaire from 
296 secondary schools in England, Scotland, and Wales, to the headmasters of which 
copies were sent. 
The questionnaire opened with the inquiry (1) whether the school had considered 
the question of introducing into the school curriculum practical work on the land to 
meet the needs of those boys referred to in the prefatory note ; (2) whether any such 
scheme had been adopted and, if not, (3) what were the possibilities of a scheme being 
introduced in the near future, or what reasons would prevent such developments ? 
Replies were received from 156 schools which may be classified as follows :— 
A. Those schoolsin which the question of agricultural work as part of an educational 
training for certain types of boys has been considered, and in which a scheme of some 
kind is already in operation. Number of schools, twenty-four. Of these, eight have 
a definite agricultural scheme as part of the school curriculum for all boys—viz., 
Abbotsholme, Derbyshire ; Bedales, Petersfield ; Brewood Grammar School, Stafford ; 
Hanley Castle Grammar School; Intermediate School, Welshpool; Knaresborough 
Rural Secondary School; Shepton Mallet, Somerset; Wem Grammar School, 
Shrewsbury. Seventeen schools have a definite agricultural scheme for a section of 
the school only—viz., Ackworth, Yorks; Beccles; Christ’s Hospital, Horsham ; 
