276 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
Two periods in school and one period in preparation are given to biology. Average 
age of these boys 154. In the Science Sixth Form physics and chemistry are studied 
with an agricultural bias. 
4, At Repton there is a Land Science Class which omits a second foreign language 
and devotes the time thus liberated to a course of science, underlying the practice of 
farming and land management. This course consists of lectures, laboratory work, and 
visits to neighbouring farms. ; 
5. At Sherborne agriculture is taken as an alternative to Latin by a small class, but 
outdoor work is confined to visiting neighbouring farms. 
6. At Leeds Boys’ Modern School (558) about five or six boys not up to certificate 
standard (15 to 16 years of age) are sent every term for three hours every Friday 
afternoon to the Shadwell Industrial School Farm, where they get an all-round train- 
ing in agriculture, and tend horses, cows and pigs. 
7. Of the smaller secondary schools mentioned in last year’s report as including 
agriculture in their curriculum the majority do so either in the form of a rural science 
course or as a subject for the General School Certificate. In some cases, such as at 
Brewood (55), Paston (174), Shepton Mallet (90), Stamford (240), Hawarden (200), 
and Wem Grammar School, their experimental plots are used for the study of plants, 
manurial tests, etc. Usually any outdoor work is done in the Third or Fourth Form 
(14-15 years of age), and no outdoor work is done in the classes taking the certificate 
examination. In several cases neighbouring farms are visited, but only for obser- 
vational work. In one case it is stated that practical work in agriculture is deprecated 
by the Board of Education. 
* §. At Hanley Castle (95-100) practically the whole school (excluding the lowest 
form) is agriculturally organised, so that, although only a small piece of land of three- 
quarters of an acre is available, all take part in land-cultural operations. The course 
includes the growth of farm crops under rotation, limited trials of various artificial 
manures, and varieties of crops, fruit culture, pruning, grafting, and budding. With 
14 hours for outdoor work, 14 hours for plant biology, and 24 hours for rural science per 
week per form, the groundwork of the agricultural science syllabus of the Cambridge 
SchoolCertificate is fully covered—all candidates taking this subject in the examination. 
Nature study is taken up by the two lower forms 14 hours per week, the syllabus being 
a study of the common animals and plants. In rural science practical work in the 
laboratories includes easy soil tests, examination, etc., of artificial manures, milk, 
common animal foods, and a groundwork of elementary physics and chemistry. Land- 
surveying classes are held each summer term; the course includes the use of chain 
survey, plane table, prismatic compass, etc. 
The effect on the certificate examination, the Headmaster says, is this—that boys 
who become really good at agricultural science are unable to obtain any proficiency in 
French, arid consequently when they attempt the examination they are, much to their 
disappointment, already foredoomed. 
9. At Knaresborough Rural Secondary School for Boys (120) and girls (84) the 
curriculum is designed with a two-fold aim :— 
(1) To permit the general school certificate to be taken by the Upper Fifth. 
(2) To provide an education of a special rural character. 
French is an optional subject and is taken by practically all pupils. Boys and girls © 
are taught together in the majority of subjects, but boys take woodwork, surveying, © 
gardening, and additional physics, whilst the girls take housecraft. Nature study and 
botany are taken in the lower part of the school (Second and Third Forms), accom- 
panied by outdoor work for the following syllabus :— 
Proper and improper use of garden tools. Preparation of land for seeds. Contrast 
between well-cultivated and badly cultivated plots. Sowing of seeds, depth of sowing, 
time of sowing, thinning. Distance between plants, transplanting, cultivation of 
various crops in individual plots, observation on birds, insects seen in the plots, etc. 
No text-books are used, but observations and experiments are recorded and written 
by each pupil. Little cultural work on the plots is done in the upper forms; mainly ~ 
observational work and demonstrations form the practical part of the agricultural 
syllabus followed in Forms IV and V. Form IVa attends aflecture and demonstration — 
each week on bee-keeping and Form IVB a lecture on poultry-keeping. % 
A more detailed description of the organisation of this school is given in the 
educational pamphlet No. 29, published by the Board of Education, 1915. ; 
10. At Friends’ School, Great Ayton (111 boys, 63 girls), the Third Form do two 
periods of nature study per week. The whole of the Lower IV are allotted three 
