nasiums in France is actually declining, owing, no doubt, to the extraordinary law which renders teachers liable for all accidents on the spot. In domestic economy, also prominent in the programs, and which from the rural point of view is the most important branch for girls, little is done beyond book lessons, "Nowhere," says Mr. Brereton, "did I come across anything like practical work, either in laundry or cooking.

"It is true that the standard of cooking in France is relatively high, and, as far as my experience goes, it is certainly above the average among the peasants. I have taken 'potluck' at the simplest of wayside inns, and even eaten at the board of some of the small cultivators. This appears, after all, only in keeping with their well-known thrift and economy, which causes them to make use of everything. In fact, it did seem to me that the actual need of teaching cookery in country districts, where there exists no artisan population, is as yet not proven."

In neglect of the branches enumerated the record of the French rural school is so like our own as to suggest the operation of common causes. Whatever be their nature, it is only populous communities that so far have been able to develop a vigorous growth of extra branches on the root of the universal elements.

It is quite otherwise with la morale, which seems to chime in with the habitual tone of country life. "I was present," says Mr. Brereton, "at a certain number of morale lessons, and was agreeably surprised by the interest the children took in them... The clever teacher does not seek to ply his pupils with any cut-and-dry systems of lay theology, but rather treats all these particular lessons as the informal résumé and logical exposition of what he is trying to teach at all hours of the day, in creating a moral atmosphere in his class, and making it a school for the will."

One outcome of the instruction is pointedly illustrated as follows: "I was talking," says our author, "to a small boy at Trun, whom the master of the school kindly told off to show me to an hotel. In the course of our conversation, I

discovered that, altho only fourteen, he was a keen sportsman. So, when he spoke of the numerous birds in his father's garden, I remarked to him: 'I suppose you are always potting at them?' 'Oh, no,' he said, 'I never shoot the useful birds. They do no end of good.' And when I asked if his ideas were shared by the other boys, he said that most of the boys in his school thought as he did."

The only general criticism of this instruction is that too much emphasis is laid on the individualistic virtues, to the detriment of the social duties, which are of chief importance. This view was expressed also by the Congress of 1900 which advised that "the new programs direct all instruction toward a social education."

The succession of decrees and the constant remodeling of programs that make up the official history of agricultural instruction in France indicate the difficulty of bringing it to practical results. The celebrated scheme issued by the ministry in 1897 reduced the whole code of the subject to one golden rule, viz., "that the method to be followed should be that of notions of science applied to agriculture and rendered above all things practical." A résumé of the scheme and several specimen programs that it has inspired are given in the report before us. It is also made quite clear that the teachers come into the schools with a good working knowledge of the subject, partly because they are recruited in great measure from the peasant class, and partly because of the training in the normal schools.

In general, even with men teachers, the agricultural instruction is apt to be "bookish," altho "the best teachers not only seem to be trying to make their teaching practical, but also to attach it to the local agriculture, of whatever nature it may be, insisting in the grass countries rather on questions of cattle and cattle-feeding; in the arable districts on cereals; in the vine regions on the treatment of the vine. At the same time they encourage the children to form botanical collections; help them to discriminate between the birds and insects useful to agriculture, and its enemies; take them for interesting excursions, and make them record their impressions, and kindle

in them thereby not only an interest in, but a love of, the country-side."

As we have said, the majority of the country children quit school before they reach eleven years of age. How to prolong the period of their instruction is the most serious problem. To comprehend its importance and the efforts that it has recently excited, reference must be made to the economic and social conditions whose analysis forms the most interesting chapter in the report before us.

The five departments visited by Mr. Brereton are essentially rural. Each contains at most a single town, a market town, as it were, of fair dimensions, and scattered up and down the valleys a certain number of small factories, not numerous enough to give the country an industrial aspect. It is only the industries grouped around a center like Lisieux or Flers, both famous for linens and cotton, that are flourishing. Here the workmen earn 3 francs 25 to 3 francs 50 a day; the women, I franc 50 to 2 francs, and as they live generally in villages outside the towns, they spend their spare time "in gardening and a little agriculture." Under the pressure of foreign competition the small isolated industries seem doomed to decay, and the prospects of village industries, as hand-loom weaving and even lace-making, like the celebrated point d'Alençon, are darker still. "There are no technical funds available in France for attempting to improve the arts and crafts in rural districts. The travaux manuels in the schools are practically of little importance; it is only in the higher primary schools that good work is being done, and here again the pupils are prepared for the big workshop, and not for rural employment."

With agriculture the case is less hopeless, altho the peasants often declare that "it is a shadow of its former self." In every department visited it appears that the value of the land has fallen heavily since 1876. The rental of a small estate of 35 hectares near Lisieux has fallen from 3500 to 2000 francs. Out of this 400 francs are spent on repairs and 800 to satisfy the tax collector. The case is not peculiar.

In respect to the division of the lands the region offers a

striking contrast to England. It is the country of small holdings. In Orne, for example, the majority of the farms comprise from 25 to 37 acres. In Sarthe, the number of proprietors runs into tens of thousands. "When any big estate comes on the market it is bought up by a speculator or syndicate and cut up into small lots that are at once snapped up by the peasants."

The extent and variety of products cultivated is noticeable. Alternation of crops is general; "on the grass lands which are not mown and sold for hay, the farmers go in for dairying, cattle-breeding, grazing, and horse-breeding. In many of these pastoral districts, especially in Calvados and Orne, the meadows are covered with apple trees. This allows the peasant to have two strings to his bow. In a wet year there is plenty of grass and probably a 'shy' apple crop; in a dry year the herbage is poor, but the apple trees are literally bowed under with blossoms." Calvados, rich in corn and other crops, is noted also for its high-class cheeses and its large trade in fowls and eggs. No less than 20,000,000 francs worth of the latter pass every year thru the port of Honfleur on their way to England. In the forest tracts, which are of considerable extent, woodmen and sabotiers ply their crafts. The number of possibilities may even be detrimental, as in the valleys of Calvados, where the farmers cannot make up their minds " to definitely take up the breeding of cattle or dairy work," and hence "fall between two stools."

There is also an ultra-individualism which blinds the small proprietor to the benefits of co-operation. "For lack of cooperation," says Mr. Brereton, "the cultivation of colza has been ruined in Calvados "; crushed out "by the competition of American cotton oils." "For lack of co-operation some of the most famous butters in Normandy have lost the position they once held in the market, owing to the difficulty to the public of being sure of securing a butter of a certain quality. On the other hand, in Indre-et-Loire there exist cooperative societies for making and selling butter, with the result that the Touraine butter has already won for itself a name in the market. These people are only copying what has

already been done in Finland, Denmark, and Holland, and what has just been started in Ireland."

But the most serious aspect of the rural problem is "the growing deficiency in labor," which, as in England, "is becoming every day more intense."

One cause of this deficiency is the exodus into towns under the hope of better wages and a less monotonous life. "Half the conscripts," says a French official, "never come back to cultivate the soil." The taste of artificial excitement has rendered rural life unendurable. Undoubtedly, however, the chief cause of the lack of labor is the actual decline in population, which is most marked in the country districts. The effects of conscription, the love of comfort, "the automatic partition of property," all conduce to this decline, but the chief factor, as now generally admitted, is the spread of alcoholism. Fifty years ago France was one of the most temperate countries in the world; to-day, according to a French statistician quoted in the report, it leads all Europe in the consumption of alcohol under its various forms. The causes assigned for this alarming change are the ravages of the vine-phylloxera, and the consequent influx of noxious spirits, the increase in private distilling, and the sale of spirits at the regimental canteens. Under these influences there has grown up a habit of perpetual "nipping," which is sapping the vital force of men, and even of women.

66

The analysis of the rural problem here barely outlined shows very clearly the points at which education may be hopefully applied. Summarizing in the order of their discussion, the author suggests that for the revival of small industries, something must be done in the shape of practical work in the schools or in evening continuation classes." In agricultural neighborhoods, where the majority of peasants are also proprietors," instruction in scientific notions applied to agriculture is demanded." "The spirit of saving, so widespread among the people, should be transferred from an individualistic to a social basis, by substituting everywhere the mutual insurance societies among the scholars, and these societies, together with the associations of former pupils, should further