216 Farming and Agricultural Training in 
So large a proportion of the land attached to this school being 
in permanent grass, there is no necessity for any comments of 
mine in addition to the clear and exhaustive statement given 
above. Mr. Gorst, the Governor, thinks that more might 
be done in a<;ricultural training' if the Government increased 
the grant to Industrial Schools, which is much smaller than 
that to Reformatories. Only three hours a day are given to 
school work, and yet, in 1884, H.M. Inspector found the educa- 
tion " well attended to," 19 boys being in the Sixth Standard ; 
"superior work :" 23 in Standard Five, 49 in Standard Four, 
25 in Standard Three, 23 in Standard Two, and 14 in the 
First Standard : 43 of the boys had passed the examination of 
the Science and Art Department in school drawing. 
IV. — Leicester School Board Certified Industrial 
School. 
" There are about 190 boys in the school, which is certified for 200 ; they 
are generally between 10 and 13 years of age on entering the school, and 
between 15 and 16 on leaving. About one-third of the boys work regularly 
npon the land. No special paj'ment or remuneration is made to them. There 
are about 80 plots of 8 or 10 square yards each laid out as flower-gardens, 
and any boy who desires can have one of these. Many of the boj's take a 
great interest in their gardens. 
" In 1881 the Board purchased 60 acres of laud, about 12 miles from 
Leicester. Fifty-five acres of this was thoroughly worn-out arable land, the 
rest poor pasture. Twenty-two acres of this land has been laid out as a market 
garden with standard trees (mostly apple) planted in lines 24 feet every way, 
with lines of small fruit-trees underneath, leaving flats between lor the 
cultivation of vegetables, &c. A large sum has been spent in making roads, 
in draining, and in thoroughly manuring the land, which has now been 
transformed into a fruitful garden. The trees are growing well, and already 
bear some fruit. 
" The remainder of the land is laying itself down into a natural pasture, 
being assisted by cake and corn given to the live-stock, and by the contents 
of the closets and urine from the dormitories, which are daily can'ied and 
.spread upon the fields. In a few years there will be a productive pasture 
without the cost of cleaning or seeding down. The closets are fitted with 
metal pans, and are disinfected by using a mixture of gypsum and super- 
phosphate, which of course add much to the fertilizing value of the n'lanure. 
The cultivation is partly done by horses and partly by the boys — all weeding, 
pea-getting, &c., by tlie boys. 
"The Committee have taken about 24 acres of land from adjoining owners 
at from 18s. to 20.s. an acre, and could have any quantity of land at similar 
prices; but on this they can get no security, so that it is only farmed from 
year to year, and the outlay is strictly limited to what is likely to be the 
annual return. 
" The land is all on the New Ked Sandstone formation ; but it is covered 
in some places by several feet of drift and boulder clay, so that it varies very 
much in its working.* 
* The history of the land attached to this school has been drawn up by the 
Chairman of the Committeo of Management, Mr. Jumes Ellis, M.l'. 
