34 Agricultural Education in Canada, [april, 



an experiment, one Central Consolidated School, which has taken 

 the place of several small schools. At this Consolidated School 

 thoroughly trained and well paid teachers concentrate their 

 tuition upon children about the same age and degree of mental 

 advancement, and the character of the education is as good as 

 any that can be obtained in a town school. Further, the usual 

 course of study at other schools has been enriched and improved 

 by the addition of Nature study with a school garden, and by 

 lessons in cooking and sewing and manual training in cardboard 

 and woodwork. Each child at the Consolidated School has his 

 or her own garden plot. Gardening enters into the curriculum 

 as a most important subject, and illustration plots show the 

 children and the parents the results (i) from the selection of 

 good seed ; (2) from a proper rotation of crops ; and (3) from 

 protecting crops by scientific methods, such as spraying the 

 potato crop with the proper mixture vv'ith the object of destroy- 

 ing destructive insects, and of combating disease. Covered vans 

 bring the children from the outlying districts to the school in 

 the morning and take them back in the afternoon. 



Sir William Macdonald's experiments in connection with the 

 substitution of one Central Consolidated School for several small 

 rural schools would appear to establish the three following 

 conclusions : — 



1. The character of the education given at Consolidated 

 Schools is greatly superior to that formerly given at the five or 

 six small schools superseded. 



2. The cost of education at the Central Consolidated School, 

 caused by the expense of van transportation, is greater than that 

 of the small schools. 



3. The value to the community of this improved education 

 cannot yet be ascertained, but it will doubtless be greater than 

 the increased cost. 



I have, &c., 

 {Signed) Grey. 



To the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 

 &c., &c. 



