Reformatory and Industrial Schools. 
179 
being secured. Regular and sufficient food, combined with regular exercise 
^in form work)), appears to train the body so as to make the mind receptive 
■of regular, but not too continuous, iatellectual effort. 
" W. Fkancis Higgins, 
" Chairman of Committee of Management, 
'^Bedfordshire Eeformatory, Carlton, Bedford." 
I visited this school on August 12th, 1885, and was much 
struck by the number of head of stock kept, and the goodness of 
the crops. The land is mostly stiff on a clay subsoil, but there is 
a strip of light land in one corner of the farm. How one horse 
and eight cows could be kept on a farm with only acres 
of high-rented but poor grass was rather puzzling to me, until I 
learnt that 1^ acres of the arable land was always in lucerne. 
With the exception of a portion of the potatoes, all the crops 
are consumed either in the house or on the farm, in addition to 
purchased cake. The bran, and an unseparated mixture of finer 
ofFal known locally as " dan," are returned by the miller, as 
Mr. Jones finds it more profitable to have his wheat ground, and 
to be charged for grinding on the basis of the miller fetching the 
wheat, returning the flour and the offal, and charging %d. per 
bushel, with a deduction of 2 lbs. weight for loss. The farm- 
buildings are very good and include some new covered yards. The 
liquid manure is carefully stored, and used chiefly for lucerne 
and cabbages ; it is also pumped over the compost and farmyard- 
manure, which is made into compact square heaps surrounded 
by a gutter. There is a great demand for the boys from this 
school by the farmers of the North and West Ridings of 
Yorkshire, in districts where lads are boarded and lodged in 
the farm-houses, Mr. Jones, the excellent manager, is of 
opinion that the first object of a Reformatory is to reform the 
I boys, not to make the greatest profit out of their labour ; 
nevertheless, considering that the school is in a purely agri- 
cultural district, I believe that he goes the right way to combine 
" profit " with " reform." The boys prize their gardens very 
much, as they are large enough to enable them to grow a bushel 
or two of potatoes, which they may sell. Mr. Jones gives prizes for 
the best-managed gardens, and when boys leave the school they 
may sell their gardens to the highest bidder amongst those 
inmates whose marks entitle them to the possession of one. The 
j maximum number of marks for a month is 144, and this carries 
I a payment of Is. to the boy's banking account, on which the 
l! lad may draw in order to purchase things that are not forbidden 
by the rules. Of the total number of boys in August 1884, 
16 were in the Fifth Standard, 14 in the Fourth, 11 in the 
Third, and the remainder (only recently admitted) were in the 
lower standards. 
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