178 Farming and Agricultural Training in 
20 garden plots (of 2 poles each) are given as rewards to the best boys for good 
conduct, and as incentives to industry. There are 4i acres of permanent 
grass, 40 acres of arable land, and 5 j acres of garden, which last is freehold, and 
therefore no rent is paid for it ; the rent of the grass land is 4?. per acre, and 
that of the arable land 30s. per acre. Bonuses are paid to the inmates on the 
" mark system " * to the extent of about 50Z. a-year. Paj'-ments are made to 
ordinary labourers of about 121. a-year, and to the bailiff and labour-master of 
50Z. a-year. The four-course system is adopted ; viz. : 10 acres beans, 10 acres 
wheat, 10 acres roots (mangolds and potatoes), followed by 10 acres barley. 
The live-stock consists of 1 horse, 8 cows, and from 50 to 100 head of pigs. 
£ s. d. 
« The value of stock sold ofif the farm in 1884 was .. .. 217 7 0 
„ „ „ slaughtered and utilised in school in 
1884 47 13 6 
„ „ farm produce sold in 1884 122 18 11 
„ „ farm produce utilised in the school during 
1884, everything charged at the cur> 
rent price of the day . . .. .. 91 6 0 
Total .. .. £479 5 5 
"There are covered farm-j'ards, and every necessary convenience, 
thoroughly good. 
" I consider farm labour an excellent means of cultivating the mind in 
a right direction. Moreover, a thoroughly well-trained, experienced man 
in agriculture and in the management of stock, if industrious and frugal, 
need never lack employment, and may be sure to rise in the social scale of 
life. A dairy is attached to this lleformatory, which affords instruction and 
employment, and is also a source of profit, but no special observations are 
taken, nor is special instruction in the work given to the boys. The out-door 
employment, in general farm and garden work, is more healthful and invi- 
gorating than trades, such as tailors, shoemakers, millers, bakers, &c., &c., as 
evidenced by the fact that not a single death has occurred amongst the 
inmates of the Beds I'eformatory, and only two boys have been discharged on 
medical grounds as being found unfit for agricultural labour, during the last 
twenty years. Incidentally, a certain number of the boys receive special 
training in the ordinary work of the establishment, viz. (1) In cooking and 
preparing food in the kitchen ; (2) In bread-baking, &c. ; (3) In milking 
and dairy work ; (4) In tailoring ; chiefly in making and mending the 
clothes of the boys, i'roficiency in these departments is found veVy useful 
in obtaining places for the boys, and in their advancement in life. 
" I am decidedly of opinion that the elementary education which is given 
in lleformatory Schools in no way suffers from its combination with prac- 
tical work, but is rather advanced by it. Boys in a Reformatory are con- 
tinually under discipline, and are receiving an education, even tliough not 
actually under the schoolmaster, nor in school hours. Hence, although the 
time devoted to schooling (about 4 hours each day) is not so long as in Board 
Schools or Voluntary Schools, boys make more rapid advances, during tiic time 
they are uuder detention, than they would if they had been subject to ordinary 
school work. Also the religious teaching (including sacred music), which 
hoys in our lleformatory receive on Sundays, is a valuable additional means 
(if education. The uppLT class of boys (about 20, out of a total in the school 
of 54) is examined in Standard V. of the Education Code, and, with three 
c'xception.s, all ])asscd salisCactorily at the last examiuatiou. lleformatory 
boys, as a rule, comjiare favourably in the matter of intellectual attainments 
wiili average labourers' children in rural districts, more regularity of teaching 
* For nn example of this system see i)p. 208 and 209. 
