198 Farming and Agricultural Training in 
secular teaching in the year amounts to as much as is averaged by the 
attendants at ordinary elementary schools. We devote 1118 hours in the 
year to instruction; full attendance in an ordinary school (which is only 
attained in a very few cases) amounts only to 1125 hours. 
" The regularity of the attendance, the sufficiency of proper food, the 
habits of discipline, the general health of the boys, and the familiarity of the 
teacher with their abilities and dispositions, are conditions which ought to 
have a bearing upon the results in favour of Keformatories as compared with 
other schools. 
" But on the other hand there are difficulties — some inseparable from the . 
very nature of Reformatories, some belonging to the system, which interfere 
with educational results. The boys have, as a rule, been neglected, and come 
to the school very ignorant and less capable of learning than at an earlier 
age. Amongst them are more than the average of low intelligences. The 
differences in age, ranging from 10 to 19, make classification very difficult, 
and the annual advance from standard to standard not easily attainable. 
The Reformatories, moreover, lie outside the ordinary stream of elementary 
education, and the teachers, however zealous in their work, have not 
necessarily had the professional training that is required in other schools, 
and are less in touch with the educational life of the day. The system of 
inspection, though thorough and adapted to its objects, does not bring the 
schools directly into comparison and competition with other elementary 
schools. It is natural to expect that after a real day's work at farm or 
other labour, boys will be weary and stupid for evening school, and probably 
this is tbe case with some; but we find their energies are not altogether 
exhausted, because when any extra labour is required in the evening, as in hay- 
making or harvest, all, with few exceptions, will volunteer for more outdoor 
occupation rather than rest in the school-room. 
" My conclusion is that if the Reformatories could be ranked with other 
elementary schools as to the qualifications of the teachers and the assess- 
ment of results, in cases where the practical work can be so arranged, either by 
its character or the time given to it, as to be not too exhaustive, the attain- 
ments of the boys should be as satisfactory as they would be for the same 
boys in ordinary day-schools. 
"R. R. Redmayne, 
" Secretary, North-Eastern Reformatory, 
*' Morpeth, Newcastle-on- Tyne." 
The foregoing answers by Mr. Redmayne, the Secretary, are 
so full, that they leave very little for me to add. The size of 
the farm is out of all proportion to the requirements of the school ; 
and as 315 acres are in poor grass, its stocking is a matter of 
considerable financial importance. As a rule, store stock are 
bought by a commission agent, and sold in the same way or by 
auction. At one time the manufacture of agricultural imple- 
ments was a considerable industry at the school, as is still 
testified by the extensive workshops now only partially devoted 
to repairing them. This alteration of practice has not been 
chosen by the managers, but is an eloquent testimony to the 
prevailing agricultural depression. The old customers of tlio 
implement manufactory have for some years been unable to 
purchase new implements, and have found difficulty in pro- 
viding money for the repair of their old ones. One curious 
