Report of Committee on Agricultural Education. 73 
there is a definite second year’s course. The students 
attending these winter schools are over sixteen years of age 
and have all been at work on the land during the summer 
months ; it has consequently been found unnecessary to 
provide any but theoretical instruction. The essential 
difference between these two types of schools is that in the 
former the lad returns to his home at the age of seventeen 
or eighteen, having never engaged in practical farming, 
because his education from the elementary school has been 
continuous ; while in the case of the winter school the lad’s 
education is not continuous, for, on leaving the elementary 
school, he returns to work on his father’s farm, except for 
the winter months. 
The Committee considered that the type of institution best 
adapted to the needs of this country is the winter school. 
They recommended that “ in the course of the next ten years 
from fifty to sixty of these schools should be provided in 
England and Wales.” The reasons for this preference are 
fully given in the Report, but one or two of the more 
important may be indicated here. This can best be done 
by the following quotation : — 
“ It has been represented to the Committee that if a lad 
once leaves school and begins farming it is difficult to get him 
to return. This is an undoubted difficulty, but on the other 
hand it must be pointed out that the longer a boy’s entrance 
on agricultural life is delayed, the greater is the risk that 
he may forsake agriculture for some other occupation. 
Attention must also be directed to the great advantage which 
the agriculturist derives from beginning to learn his business 
at an early age. 
“There is a further point of some importance in comparing 
practical schools with winter schools. At the former the 
pupils, in order to gain experience, must spend half their 
time in manual work. To this, British parents might object 
on the grounds that if their children were engaged in 
unskilled manual labour, they would be better employed 
assisting in farm work at home.” 
The instruction suggested at these proposed winter schools 
closely resembles that given with striking success at the short 
courses held at our university and agricultural colleges. 
Again, four county councils, viz., those of Bedfordshire, 
Cumberland, Hampshire and Essex, have already established 
institutions providing courses very similar to those held at 
the less advanced winter schools on the Continent. Doubtless 
a continuous course of schooling may have proved successful 
elsewhere, but it must be remembered that there is not, 
in all counti’ies, that constant gravitation towards the 
