Welsh Journals

each of the institutions concerned-the University College, the Mining Schools, and the various Technical and Elementary Schools of the district- will, under the proposed scheme, retain to the full all their present powers of control and management, whilst the new Mining Board will exist merely to act on a consultative and co-ordinating authority, possessing no executive powers so far as those institutions are concerned. If this be so, it is to be hoped that better counsels will quickly prevail and that all the interests affected will soon be found co-operating in this very useful piece of work. School Many elementary schools in rural Gardens. districts have taken up rural science. including school gardening. It is true that this is done, not as a direct preparation for agriculture but purely as educational training. It is perfectly evident, however, that if this be conducted on proper lines, the bias so created, together with the training in observation of fact and practice would form an excellent basis for advanced agricul- tural education. There are many schools which already do excellent work in this direction. Unfor- tunately there is a dearth of teachers who sympathise with and understand this aspect of the subject. Many of the schools are understaffed, so that there is no teacher available for the effective supervision of the out-door work. As the number of teachers trained in the methods of this class of work increases we shall look for a corresponding increase in the intelligence of the pupils and in the number and efficiency of the students of agriculture. The County Schools do far less than the primary schools to foster rural science. At Bottwnog agriculture is taught; the other schools even those in country places do very little even indirectly for agriculture. Thus Botany one of the most useful of subjects from an Agricultural and Horticultural point of view is only taken, in the four northern counties, in ten out of twenty-six schools, and, of these, six are in Carnarvon. Furthermore, the subject is almost exclusively taken by girls-there are hardly a couple of dozen boys in the whole of Wales who take Botany-a most anomalous state of affairs. It is a pity that more of the rural schools not follow the examples of Welshpool and Bottwnog. The Madryn This interesting experiment carried Farm out by the Carnarvon County Institute. Council is evidence of courage, enterprise, and public spirit, and it deserves the hearty support of the farmers of the county, particularly those of Lleyn where the School is situated. The institute demands an article to itself-here we can only briefly mention it. The old mansion, Madryn Castle has now been fitted up as a Farm School, where young students of the practice of farming, gardening, poultry keeping. and dairying, may study, and where they are also boarded. The school has a fine garden and a considerable amount of land attached to it. The Principal Mr. R. H. Evans was formerly Assistant Professor at Reading We look with much interest to the future development of this admirable experi- ment. Why should it not become a Peasants University on the lines of the Danish People s Schools ? The In referring last month to the Exhibition of exhibition of Welsh Art now being Welsh Art. held in Cardiff, we omitted to mention the fact that it was organised by The National Museum of Wales. We hear from Dr. W. Evans Hoyle, the Director of the National Museum, that it has been found difficult to persuade people that this is a National Museum and not a Cardiff Institution. If, by any such omission, we have unconsciously encouraged people in this ignorance we heartily express our regret, for the National Museum of Wales is worthy of far greater support, from the whole country, than it has yet received. Dydd Gwyl We have received from the Welsh Dewi. Department of the Board of Educa- tion at Whitehall a short publication on St. David's Day, which should be useful to teachers and others organising celebrations in the Principality. There are articles and notes on the Saint's life, written in Welsh and English 10 pages of Suggestions for Teachers for the Celebration of St. David's Day in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools It; an appendix on the Myddelton Ter- centenary with the sub-heading of The Myddeltons of Denbigh; or what three sixteenth century Welshmen did for Wales, for England, and for the Empire. It contains three excellent reproductions and is otherwise pleasantly got up.