§ MR. NAPIERTo ask the President of the Board of Education whether he has considered the recent recommendations of the Departmental Committee on the fruit industry that horticulture should be taught in elementary schools in country districts, and that such schools should have school gardens attached thereto wherever possible, and also the further recommendation of the same Committee that the attention of the local education committees should be called to the above recommendation, and also to the desirability of encouraging the study of practical horticulture in training colleges; and if he is prepared to take action on either of such recommendations.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Board give special grants for cottage gardening. These grants are taken considerable and increasing advantage of, in spite of the difficulties in the way of obtaining suitable teachers and gardens. Some county councils are providing excellent classes for the instruction of the existing teaching staffs of rural elementary schools in these subjects. The subject may be taken as part of a training college course, and is, in fact, so taken in one or two colleges, where the surroundings and conditions are favourable.