140 Report on Agricultural Education. 
cultivation of the farm, the second year's lads are taken in groups 
of four, and taught to perform every operation in the field and 
the homestead. Thus they have just sufficient practical instruc- 
tion to enable them to accomplish various acts of husbandry them- 
selves ; but their time is not taken up by labour on the farm to 
the detriment of their general and technical education, which 
comprises arithmetic and mathematics, land-surveying and 
levelling, history and geography, the natural sciences and theo- 
retical agriculture. These examples may suffice to show the 
general working of such establishments, most of the directors of 
which are of opinion that a marked effect has been produced in 
the agriculture of their districts by their influence. The rota- 
tions of crops have been improved, machinery has come into 
more general use, the quality of the cattle has improved, and 
manual labour much diminished, owing to the use of machines 
of a superior type. One desponding director, whom Mr. Jenkins 
quotes, but whose name he naturally withholds, however avers 
that, owing to the peculiar character of the peasant population 
in his district, which he describes as mistrustful and indolent 
in the highest degree, no direct influence upon the agriculture 
of the country can be observed, in spite of the example which 
he has placed before them for the last twenty-five years. 
Agricultdral Winter Schools. 
A common type of educational establishment for the lower 
classes is found in the Agricultural Winter Schools ; and travel- 
ling lecturers are also engaged during the summer months to 
give instruction in theoretical agriculture. Mr. Jenkins points 
out that such a method of teaching as this would be im- 
practicable in England. Whilst in Germany the school time 
is relegated to the winter, because there is very little work to be 
done then on any ordinary peasant farm, on a well-managed 
English farm there is nearly as much work to be done as in 
summer, especially in the great sheep districts. 
An inspection of the schoolrooms and buildings employed 
showed that the accommodation was generally of a moderate 
class, but there was generally a simple physical and chemical 
apparatus apparently sufficient for the purposes required, and 
there was always a microscope. Agricultural, zoological, and 
botanical diagrams were generally to be found upon the walls, 
and a small museum of natural-history objects was generally the 
pride of the director. 
The object of these agricultural winter schools is to continue 
the general education of young men who have left the element.ary 
schools, as well as to give them instruction in technical subjects 
