438 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L, M. 



Mr. G. W. W. Pierce (11.30). 



The village school as it exists to-day is doomed. 



The new rural school will be an area school of about 220-280 children, 

 situated in the country — the more rural the better. 



Eight to ten acres necessary in order to allow for playing fields and gardens. 



The tendency for local education authorities to convey country children 

 to the nearest town to be educated with town children is definitely wrong. 



It is better for town children to receive a rural education than for rural 

 children to receive an urban education. 



The teaching staff must be interested in rural life and rural surroundings. 



A rural bias is essential in all subjects of the curriculum, particularly 

 arithmetic, gardening, science, handwork, cooking and geography. 



Practical work is vital and should occupy at least half the school hours. 



Sir Arnold Wilson, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., C.M.G., D.S.O. (12.0). 



Education for rural life involves in practice education for husbandry 

 in all its branches. This can only be given in rural areas by teachers, male 

 and female, who know something about it and are convinced believers in 

 it as a way of life as well as a living. Such persons are rare except in agri- 

 cultural institutes. Little can be usefully accomplished in elementary 

 schools : more might be done in secondary schools, but for practical purposes 

 we must look to County Schools of Agriculture. But the first need is a 

 different outlook upon husbandry in every walk of life and a reversal of 

 present trends of thought in Whitehall and Westminster, at Broadcasting 

 House and in Fleet Street. 



SECTION M.— AGRICULTURE. 



Thursday, September 10. 



Discussion on National nutrition and British agriculture (10.0). 



Sir John Orr, F.R.S. — The requirements for an adequate diet. 



Formerly dietary surveys took account only of proteins, fats and carbo- 

 hydrates, and political measures were limited to the relief of hunger. It is 

 now known that diet must also contain a sufficient amount of a number of 

 minerals and vitamins. Calcium is probably the constituent most deficient 

 in poor diets, and the only practical way to get a sufficiency of calcium is 

 by increased consumption of milk. In practice a ' poor diet ' is liable to 

 be deficient in most of the minerals and most of the vitamins and, in the 

 case of children, of first-class protein. 



The ' London Report ' of the Committee of the Health Section of the 

 League of Nations states that an adequate diet for children and pregnant 

 and nursing women requires if pint of milk per head per day. To 

 provide an adequate diet the milk consumption of the country would need 

 to be double the present production, with similar increases for eggs, fruit 

 and vegetables. The cost of an adequate diet (os. to 10s. per head per week) 

 is beyond the purchasing power of one-third of the community. There 



