Education. 



238 



This entailed the provision for establishing school gardens and farms. At 

 the present time nearly 4,000 primary schools in France have these farms. The 

 training of teachers for rural districts includes agriculture. The superior primary 

 schools' curriculum embraces lessons on general facts of agricultural production, 

 treatment of the soil, principles of irrigation and drainage, the management of 

 agricultural labour and machines, the study of insects, as well as special instruction 

 in horticulture, arboriculture, and viticulture, the treatment and health of domestic 

 animals, their breeding and fattening, dairy work, farm book-keeping, rural 

 economy, bee-keeping, silk-worm culture, and poultry raising. Only those plants, 

 animals, and methods are treated in detail which form a distinctive feature of the 

 agricultural industry of the district. Weekly visits are made to farms, dairies, 

 piggeries, and such like in the district, by the pupils accompanied by the teacher. 

 Medals and money are awarded annually by the Government, municipalities, and 

 agricultural societies, to both masters and pupils who distinguish themselves 

 at competitive examinations on the subjects relating to agriculture and its allied 

 industries . 



Italy. 



The Director-General of Primary and Normal Instruction issued, under date 

 29th November, 1897, a report, in which is shown that in 471 elementary schools 

 practical teaching in the rudiments of agriculture was given, but shortly after- 

 wards a strong demand was made to attach a piece of land to each school, so that 

 the essential rules of the art of cultivating the soil could be learned by observation 

 and experiment. The appeal was couched in the following terms : — 



"Let us return to the fields! This is the invitation which from all time 

 men of superior understanding and of generous hearts have repeated to the 

 Italians. Be it granted to us to join them ; let us enamour the rising generation 

 with the land ! Pi'um the little garden, where the country teacher shall practically 

 teach the rudiments of agriculture, upwards through the technical schools aod 

 the professional institutes, may the knowledge of agriculture continually be 

 reinforced and elevated ; everywhere may they reawaken the Virgilian affection 

 for rustic labour.*' 



In less than six months, 2,257 blocks of land, varying in extent from a small 

 garden to that of a farm, were presented for the purpose. Courses of instruction 

 were arranged for teachers at the Royal School of Practical Agriculture of Ascoli 

 Picera, and certificates were issued to those who attended. Other similar institu- 

 tions Avere utilised, where teachers acquired a sufficient knowledge and training 

 of the principles and practice of elementary agriculture. Lectures were given at 

 184 places, with a total attendance of 8,000 teachers. In 1899 12,000 teachers had 

 obtained the certificate of attendance. Great care has been exercised to see that 

 teachers know how to adapt their treatment of the subject to the age, intelligence 

 of the pupils, and the local needs of the district ; and also that the teacher possesses 

 the aptitude, experience, and education necessary for his work. The Department 

 declined to adopt a general text-book for pupils, on the grounds that it depended 

 solely on the efforts of the teacher, for whom it was more essential to be provided 

 with a text-book. During the year 1898-9, 8,000 rural schools were given instruction 

 on the subject. 



Austria— Hungary. 

 To each elementary rural school a fruit garden is given. Special attention 

 is devoted to the theoretical and practical teaching of agriculture. In the National 

 Schools, instruction in agriculture is combined with natural history. The tuition 

 embraces the description of domestic animals, vegetables, and minerals ; the 

 cultivation of vegetables and fruits, the breeding and rearing of cattlp, agricultural 

 methods, and, where local conditions are suitable, silk-worm rearing. 



