1920.] Rural Education in Wales. 509 



Other reassuring figures are quoted, closing with those of 

 Hooper and Nutter who, in 1914, examined 220 machine-drawn 

 samples from a private farm, which averaged as low as 4,624 

 bacteria per cubic centimetre, only 14 samples exceeding the 

 certified limit of 10,000. 



Dr. Orr has certainly made out an excellent case for the neces- 

 sity as well as for the possibility of cleanliness in milking 

 machines. 



An experiment* made at the Welshpool County School for 



Boys to give an agricultural bias to the ordinary school teaching 



■« i ~ , ^. has aroused considerable interest in the 

 Rural Education , , , _ , , , w , , . 



in Wales schools ot England and Wales, and impor- 

 tant developments may take place. So 

 important was this experiment deemed by the Board of Educa- 

 tion that a grant was made to the School for the year 1918-14, 

 and for the two subsequent years, in order to assist and 

 encourage the work and also to test its effect on the general 

 course of education. If the example of the Welshpool School is 

 widely followed in the schools of Great Britain the results may 

 be of far-reaching importance. 



The Welshpool County School is situated on the rich alluvium 

 of the Severn Valley, in the eastern portion of the county of 

 Montgomery; and has an average of 100 students, of whom about 

 half are farmers' sons. Efforts to give an agricultural trend to 

 the teaching date from 1908, when the Agricultural Department 

 of the University College of Wales. Aberystwyth, sent a member 

 of its staff to give instruction, one day each week, consisting 

 mainly of specially useful and applied points in agricultural 

 chemistry, combined with farm visits for the observation of 

 crops and farming operations. A school garden was laid out, 

 arranged for practical and observational work, and planted with 

 bush and fruit trees. These arrangements continued for 

 two year-, and will doubtless prove beneficial to the boys. In 

 1910 a master to take charge of the rural work of the school was 

 added permanently to the staff; a Rural Boom or Agricultural 

 Laboratory was built; and half an acre of land adjoining the 

 school was secured for outdoor work. It was considered that it 

 was not the dutv of a secondary school to give definite training 

 in the technical and manual processes of agricultural practice, 



*'Education in '"Wales : The experiment in rural secondary education at 

 Welshpool County 'School for Boya — 'Welsh Department, Board of Education, 

 1920. Price 2s. 6d. net). 



