§ SIR F. CHANNINGTo ask the President of the Board of Education if he will state what is the present number of school gardens provided for elementary, secondary, and evening schools, respectively, in England and Wales; in how many of such schools gardens are arrangements made for fruit cultivation as well as for gardening; and what is the number of detached demonstration or experimental fruit plots to which pupils of schools have access.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) The number of public elementary schools in England and Wales notified to the Board for the purpose of the grant for gardening is 1,138, each of which, of course, has ground specially devoted to the purposes of school gardening; but there are in addition a number of schools in which gardening is carried on more as a part of nature study than for the purpose of teaching gardening as such, and the gardens of these schools are not included in that number. Few secondary schools have school-gardens intended to teach practical gardening to the scholars, but several schools in England (and one or two in Wales), the curricula of which are regarded by the Board as having a distinctly agricultural character, have land for outdoor demonstration and experimental work in plant life; and a number of other secondary schools in England possess gardens which are utilised in connection with the biological teaching. The applications for recognition of evening school gardening classes for the current year have not yet all been received, but assuming that the applications still to be received will correspond with last year, the number 401 will amount to about 190 in England and Wales. It is impossible to say in how many of the elementary and evening school gardens arrangements are made for fruit cultivation, as few counties have any uniformity of practice in this respect, but it is probably about half. In only two of the secondary schools referred to in the second paragraph above is provision made for the systematic teaching of fruit culture. As far as I am informed, to only one of the detached fruit stations in the country have the pupils of any public elementary, secondary, or evening schools regular access for practical instruction.