280 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
upwards, and some are put there who evidently have little literary ability. The 
numbers taking agriculture vary, about one in seven goes into the form. 
The class is under a specially qualified master. The boys continue their general 
education in English subjects, French, mathematics and drawing, and receive special 
instruction in chemistry, botany, zoology and geology, doing practical work in the 
laboratory as well as theoretical in the classroom. This is supplemented by lessons in 
mensuration, land-surveying and book-keeping. 
Their studies in the elements of agriculture are illustrated on the school experi- 
mental plots or by occasional visits to farms, shows, etc., in the neighbourhood. 
16. At Christ's Hospital.—The agricultural work at Christ’s Hospital at the present 
time affects only a comparatively small percentage of the boys in the school. Not 
more than 40 to 50 boys out of a total of 700 in the Upper School take the subject 
in any one term. 
Physics and chemistry have hitherto formed the staple subjects of the science 
work in the school. When a boy in the Middle School has remained there long 
enough to have studied the chemistry of air and water he usually gets the opportunity 
of joining a class for elementary biology in connection with practical work on a small 
experimental farm of five acres. He is kept in this class for a year if possible, but it 
often happens that he passes on to the block above at the end of one or two terms 
only. He may then, if he wishes, join the Agricultural Class proper, with the intention 
of going on the land when he leaves school. This class consists of about 16 boys. 
Their time-table enables them to devote two whole mornings per week to agricultural 
studies either in practical work on the land, tending and feeding a horse, pigs, goats, 
poultry, and bees, or in biological work in a laboratory or out-of-doors. In addition 
to that work they spend three hours per week in a special course of chemistry adjusted 
to their needs in the agricultural work, or in more advanced biological work. 
TIME-TABLE OF THE AGRICULTURAL CLASS (aex 15 To 17). 
Period! Monpay TuEsDAY |WEDNESDAY| THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 
1. Scripture 
Workshop Agric. Workshop | Geography Agric. 
2 Biology 
3 ) : 
: Agric. or : ’ 
+ Worksl h t 5 hs. : 7 ; 
N orkshop| Chemistry Biology Maths Chemistry Agric 
5 ) 5 A 
I Reading English Wine 
6 ) fea History nik History OEBEHOp Or 
N.B.—Periods = # hour. 
It will be seen that, in addition to the purely agricultural work, these boys spend 
six hours in the manual school per week, and become expert in making various articles 
of wood or metal for use on the farm, or school generally. 
In these classes boys have often shown a natural bent for biology, but make very 
slow progress in most other subjects. Every boy is interested in animal life, and many 
also in plant life. It appeals to them in a way no other subject can, and when once 
an interest is aroused it is found that boys then make more progress with physics 
and chemistry, because they see that life cannot be thoroughly understood without 
a knowledge of these subjects, and this increase of mental energy in their general 
attitude towards study reacts on other subjects in the curriculum; the practical 
nature of the work has awakened general interest and arouses ambition hitherto 
lacking. It is only force of circumstances and the general curriculum that prevent 
more boys taking the subject. Amongst boys of about 14% to 15 without literary or 
mathematical ambitions it is very popular. 
During wet weather, when labour is not required, and in short intervals between 
tasks, discussions and short talks take place. 
Every boy in his turn is given a responsible post for a term or more. Some of 
these posts require a good deal of a boy’s spare time. Hach boy is expected to be 
