78 
Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
an imperial bushel, when he may not have the faintest idea of 
the absolute or relative sizes of the standard measures. Similarly 
with maps ; the boy is well acquainted with the map of Europe, 
and he knows how long it takes him to walk from one end of his 
parish to the other ; but he has no notion what is the relative 
distance between those two points and between St. Petersburg 
and Lisbon. In these Belgian schools, however, everything takes 
a concrete form. You see long rows of the standard weights and 
measures ; a series of maps on the same scale, commencing with 
the commune, and followed by the arrondissement, the pro- 
vince, the kingdom, and the continent* 
In the commune of Haeltert, the schoolmaster's salary was 
60Z. per annum, and that of his assistant 40Z. The schoolmistress 
got 50/. The schoolmaster had about half an acre of ground, 
with a midden and cow-house, and he kept a cow. The three 
officials had lodgings in the school-house. The ventilation of 
the schoolrooms was effected partly by means of air-shafts in the 
walls, about 10 feet apart, fitted with internal and extei'nal 
gratings, and partly by ventilators in the roof of the building. 
* M. Leclerc observes : — " By our system of parish schools for the education of 
children of the working classes, poor children are received therein gratuitously. 
The funds necessary for these schools are taken out of the ordinary resources. 
They are furnished in part by the parishes and in part by the State. The State 
intervenes with subsidies, which amount generally to a third of the expense in the 
construction and furnishing of the school buildings. The province also grants 
subsidies for this object, but they are less important than those furnished by the 
State. There are at this time in Belgium 351 1 parish schools, 627 private schools 
subject to inspection, 1492 private schools perfectly free; in all 5630 elementary 
schools. The first are attended by 382,484 pupils, the second by 73,824, and the 
third by 107,408— total, 563,718 for a population of 4,827,833 in our kingdom. 
Compulsory education does not exist in Belgium. It has been a question during 
the last three years, and an interesting discussion on this subject took place recently 
in the Chamber of Kepresentatives, but without result. This system has numerous 
partisans here, but it is generally believed that its application presents great prac- 
tical difficulties. The principal is that Belgium, in spite of the considerable sacri- 
fices that the Government has made during several years, for the sake of elementary 
education, is not yet sufficiently provided with schools and schoolmasters to allow 
of compulsory education being efficaciously applied. The law allows benevolent 
societies to withdraw their succour from poor parents who do not send their children 
to school. This is the only measure of coercion which we have. The majority of 
parents send voluntarily their children to the parish schools. Statistics show that 
amongst the young men of 19 years of age, who draw lots for the militia, there is 
only 24 per cent, who can neither read nor write ; but this is not a precise basis, 
because many young men who attended the elementary schools have forgotten 
■what they learnt, when they come to the age for drawing for the militia. Accord- 
ing to the statistics of the elementary instruction, which I have given in a previous 
answer, the relation between the number of pupils and the total population of the 
kingdom is ir7 per cent. ; but the number of pupils indicated does not comprise 
the children of the age of 7 to 14, which are admitted in large numbers to the 
ordinary schools and reformatories. Children begin to work upon the farm gene- 
rally at the age of 14 or 15 years, when regular work which requires a certain 
physical force is required. In certain parts of the country children from 11 to 12 
years of age are employed to drive cows, sheep, and pigs to the pasture-lands, and 
■watch them there. In this case the children attend school in the winter." 
