24 EDUCATION IN DAIRY FARMING, AND 



eludes seventeen schools of agriculture and irrigation, and three 

 schools of horticulture and viticulture ; while the fourth system 

 includes nineteen farm schools distributed in different depart- 

 ments of France. Some of these we have had the advantage of 

 inspecting in addition to the College of Grignon, where dairying 

 forms a branch of the studies, both practical and theoretical. 

 The dairy is well arranged, although by no means large, and it 

 is fitted with the Danish separator and other important new 

 machines and utensils. At Grand Jouan a dairy branch is to 

 be shortly added. 



The practical schools of agriculture were constituted by the 

 law 30th July 1875. The Government pays the expenses of 

 experimental and personal instruction ; it takes care that the 

 farm is well conducted ; it affords good examples of culture ; but 

 the department or the proprietor of the farm in counection 

 with the school is responsible alone for the profit or loss. If a 

 school is found desirable in a particular district, those who have 

 facilities and who care to undertake the responsibility, make 

 application to the Minister of Agriculture, who forthwith creates 

 a school, if the building, the farm, and the whole tout ensemble 

 are found satisfactory, and in this case the Government grants 

 are made. From personal examination of the system con- 

 ducted upon these farms, and we may take La Pilletiere in 

 Sarthe as an example, the system affords a capital model for a 

 similar class of schools in this countr}^, more especially for 

 schools of dairying. The proprietor at Pilletiere, M. de Ville- 

 pin, is appointed director, and he is assisted in some cases by 

 the sub-du^ector, and always by a personnel, comprising teachers 

 of agriculture, zootechny, rural economy, and masters who in- 

 struct in mathematical science and natural history ; also by a 

 veterinary surgeon, a farm bailiff, a head gardener, a book-keeper, 

 and a military instructor. These schools receive the sons of 

 small proprietors, farmers, and artisans, all of whom are lodged 

 and boarded. The cost of education varies between £16 and £24 

 per annum ; but in some cases a certain luimber of purses are 

 provided by the Department or State, carrying gratuitous in- 

 struction, also of prizes which are awarded to pupils when they 

 leave, varying from £8 to £20. One half of the day is devoted 

 to the practical work of the farm, the other to study. The age 

 of the pupils varies on admission from 14 to 16. We find in a 

 note prepared by the Minister of Agriculture on the organisa- 

 tion of these schools, that in pasture districts only one pupil is 

 permitted to each 12 to 15 acres, and that the pupils are 

 required to remain from two to three years. The director is 

 allowed a sum of £10, 6s. per annum for each pupil, whose work, 

 valuable in the case of the older ones, is at his disposal. The 

 payment of the personnel is as follows : — 



