Schools of industry, similar to the one established by the late Rev. W. L. Rham atWinkfield, and by the Earl of Lovelace at Ockley, may be made the medium of imparting an acquaintance with the principles of agriculture, which at present the labouring classes do not usually ob tain. To Winkfield school there are at tached about four acres of good land ; and under the guidance of so accom plished an agriculturist as Mr. Rham the scholars enjoyed the advantage of pursuing all the details of the most skil ful husbandry, and undergoing a course of training in garden and farm manage meat of no ordinary excellence. On Mrs. Davies Gilbert's estate there is a school of manual labour, and the prin ciple on which it is established might perhaps be made conducive on a large scale to the two objects of enabling the scholars to acquire the elements of learn ing and of fitting them by proper indus trial training to become expert and in dustrious in field and garden work. At the school here spoken of the master is paid one penny per week for each boy ; but the chief emolument of the master arises from the labour of the boys on the school land. Their time is divided into two portions, one part of which the master devotes to their instruction in reading, writing, &c., and in return for which they employ another por tion of their time in cultivating his land. (Committee of Council on Educa tion, 1844.) In Ireland the government affords di rect encouragement to agricultural edu cation through the instrumentality of the Board of National Education. The persons who are trained for the office of teachers in the national schools are re quired to attend the lectures of a profes sor of agricultural chemistry; and during a portion of the time occupied in prepar ing for their future duties they are placed at the model farm at Glassueven, where they are lodged, and where, during five mornings of the week. they attend lec tures on the principles of agriculture ; and an examination subsequently takes place. On the sixth morning they are taken over the farm, and the operations ward are explained to them. The admits a certain number of in-door pupils for the term of at least two years, who pay 10/. a year for board, lodging, and education. They work on the farm, at tend the lectures, and receive such instruc tion as qualifies them to fill the office of bailiffs. There is likewise a class of schoolmasters trained to conduct agri cultural schools. It is intended to es tablish twenty-five agricultural model schools in different parts of the country. The Agricultural Seminary at Temple moyle, six miles from Londonderry, is one of the most successful experiments which has yet been made in the United Kingdom to establish an institution for agricultural education. It was founded by the North West of Ireland Society. The plan is in some degree taken from the institution established. by M. Fellen berg, at Hofwyl, in Switzerland. In 1841 the house contained 70 young men, as many as it can accommodate and the farm afford instruction to ; and there were 40 applications for admission. The size of the farm is 172 acres. An account of the institution and of the course of instruction will be found in the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education,' p. 565, 8vo. ed.
Such societies as the Scottish Agricul tural Chemistry Association, established at the close of 1843, are very well calcu lated to advance the progress of scien tific agriculture ; and they can be es tablished in any district where a sufficient number of subscribers can be obtained to command the services of a competent chemist. Associations of this nature show how much can be done in this country without any assistance from the state. The object of the Scottish associa tion is the diffusion of existing informa tion, theoretical and practical, by means of occasional expositions, addresses, and correspondence ; and secondly, the en largement of the present store of know ledge by experimental investigations of practical agnculturists in the field and of the chemist in the laboratory. Landed proprietors who subscribe twenty shillings yearly, and tenants who subscribe ten shillings yearly, are entitled to have per formed analyses of soils, manures, &c., according to a scale fixed upon ; and if more than a certain number are required, a charge of one-half above the scale is made. Letters of advice, without an analysis being required, are charged 2a. 6d., and at present the number which each subscriber may write is not limited. Every agricultural society subscribing 51. yearly to the funds of the Association is entitled to one lecture from the chemist; if 10/. to two lectures, &c. Counties which subscribe 201. annually are entitled to appoint a member of the Committee of Management. The Society in question
has raised a fund sufficient to defray all expenses for the ensuing four years. The chemist of the association has his labora tory at Edinburgh, but he is to visit va rious parts of Scotland according to cer tain regulations.
In France there are schools assisted by the state, where young persons can obtain instruction in agriculture both practical and theoretical. The principal institu tion of this kind is that at Grignon, where one of the old royal palaces and the domain attached to it, consist ing of 1185 acres of arable, pasture, wood, and marsh land, has been given up on certain conditions. The professors are paid by the government, and the pupils are of two grades, one paying 481. a year, and the other 36/. For the purpose of imparting theoretical know ledge, courses of lectures are given on the following subjects :-1. The rational prin ciples of husbandry, and on the manage ment of a farm. 2. The principles of rural economy applied to the employment of the capital and stock of the farm. 3. The most approved methods of keeping farming accounts. 4. The construction of farm-buildings, roads, and implements used in husbandry. 5. Vegetable phy siology and botany. 6. Horticulture. 7. Forest science. 8. The general principles of the veterinary art. 9. The laws re lating to property. 10. Geometry ap plied to the measurement and surveying of land. 11. Geometrical drawing of farming implements. 12. Physics as ap plied to agriculture. 13. Chemistry, as applied to the analysis of soils, manures, &c. 14. Certain general notions of mi neralogy and geology. 15. Domestic medicine, applied to the uses of husband men. The practical part of the education is conducted on the following system:— The pupils are instructed in succession in all the different labours of the farm. Some, for instance, under the direction of the professor of the veterinary art, per form the operations required by the casualties which are continually occurring in a numerous stock of cattle. Others are appointed to attend to the gardens, and to the following departments : woods and plantations ; inspection of repairs taking place on the premises • making of starch, cheese, and other premises; the pharmaceutical department; book-keep ing and the accounts. A daily register is kept of the amount of the manure ob tained from the cattle of every kind. A pupil newly entered is appointed to tat with one of two years' standing; and at the end of each week all are expected to make a report, in the presence of their comrades, of whatever has been done during the week in their respective de partments. The professor, who presides over the practical part of their education, explains on the spot the proper manner of executing the various field operations; and he also gives his lectures on these different processes at the time when they are in actual progress. The professors in each render their courses as practical as possible ;—the professor of botany by heri.mtions • the professor of chemistry by geological excursions; the professor of mathematics, by exe cuting, on the plan he has pointed out, the survey and measurement of certain portions of land. After two years' train mg in the theory and practice of rural economy, the pupils undergo an examina tion from the professors collectively, and, if satisfactory, a diploma is granted, which certifies to the capacity of the pupil for fulfilling the duties of what may be styled an "Agricultural En gineer." Institutions designed for the improve ment of agriculture, and supported by the state, have been established in most parts of Germany. In Prussia there is a public model farm and agricultural academy in nearly every province. The most im portant of these institutions is the one at Miigelin, in Brandenburg, about forty miles from Berlin, which was founded by the late king. Von Thaer was at one period the director. The establishment consists of a college and a model farm of 1200 acres. When visited by Mr. Jacob, in 1820 ('Agriculture, &c. of Germany'), there were three professors, who resided upon the premises: one for mathematics, chemistry, and geology; one for the ve terinary art; and the third for botany and the use of the various vegetable pro ductions in the Materia Medics, as well as for entomology. Attached to the in stitution there was a botanic garden, arranged on the Linnomin system ; an herbarium; a museum containing skele tons of domestic animals, models of agri cultural implements, specimens of soils, &c. The various implements were made in workshops upon the farm, and the pupils were expected to acquire a general notion of the modes of constructing them. The sum paid by each pupil was very high, not less than 80/. a year.