------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Number of such || | Number of such | | Number of| Families. || Number of| Families. | |Members of|--------------------||Members of|--------------------| | Families.| | In the || Families.| | In the | | | In Towns.| Country.|| | In Towns.| Country.| |----------------------------------------------------------------| | 1 | 19,299 | 11,807 || 11 | 737 | 11,506 | | 2 | 22,311 | 25,035 || 12 | 340 | 7,570 | | 3 | 28,182 | 45,747 || 13 | 180 | 4,853 | | 4 | 29,732 | 66,554 || 14 | 79 | 3,446 | | 5 | 27,884 | 82,771 || 15 | 44 | 2,187 | | 6 | 21,746 | 83,635 || 16 | 39 | 1,499 | | 7 | 13,636 | 69,216 || 17 | 16 | 1,069 | | 8 | 7,619 | 48,218 || 18 | 14 | 786 | | 9 | 3,646 | 30,756 || 19 | 8 | 528 | | 10 | 1,757 | 19,005 || 20 | 1 | 368 | ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Bulgarian infant in the beginning of life will have no handicap of artificial feeding. The "feeding bottle" is practically unknown in his country. From the very early age of three this Bulgarian infant may begin to go to school. Primary education is obligatory. The infant schools are for the preparation of the children for the primary schools. Infants between the ages of three and five years are admitted in the lower divisions, and those between five and six in the higher division. They are taught games, songs, drawing, manual work, and simple arithmetic. The teaching in these schools is entrusted exclusively to school mistresses. The proclaimed object of the primary school is "to give the future citizen a moral education, to develop him physically, and to give him the most indispensable knowledge." The studies last four years. The school year begins on September 1 and lasts, in the towns, until June 25, and in the villages until the beginning of May. Thus the whole summer and part of the autumn is exempt from school duties--a wise exemption in an agricultural community where the children, and perhaps some of the teachers, have to work in the fields. The subjects taught include morals, catechism, Bulgarian and ancient Bulgarian history, civic instruction, geography, arithmetic, natural history, drawing, singing, gymnastics, manual work (for boys), and embroidery (for girls). Every parish or village of more than fifty houses must have at least one primary school. The hamlets and villages of less than fifty houses are considered, for educational purposes, as parishes.