AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH IN THE 

 SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES AND FINLAND. 



F. W. Woll, 

 Assistant Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Wisconsin. 



More than two-thirds of the territory occupied by the Scandinavian 

 countries and Finland lies north of the sixtieth parallel, the latitude of 

 Cape Farewell, the southern extremity of Greenland, and of Cape Chid- 

 ley, the northernmost point of East Labrador. Thanks to the benefi- 

 cent influence of the Gulf Stream on the climate of the European coun 

 tries mentioned, conditions of life and industries are there of a wholly 

 different character than what are found in the parts of America lying 

 near or within the Arctic Circle. As a result, the Scandinavians rank 

 among the foremost of civilized nations as regards both intellectual and 

 material achievements. They have been able to vigorously attack the 

 problems presenting themselves for solution and have offered valuable 

 contributions to the progress of mankind. These countries early saw 

 the benefits to be derived from technical instruction and investigation 

 in agriculture and allied branches. Their system of agricultural edu- 

 cation is highly developed and, in some of its phases, is not surpassed 

 in other countries. A general inquiry into the methods of agricultural 

 instruction in Scandinavia, and into the results of the research work 

 done there in the line of agriculture, can not therefore fail to be of 

 interest and may prove valuable to the student of agriculture. 



Iu the summer of 1896 the writer visited a number of the Scandinavian 

 and Finnish agricultural institutions of education and investigation, 

 as a representative of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 and had good opportunities of becoming acquainted with these institu- 

 tions, their working methods, and the men in charge. All the higher 

 agricultural colleges of the countries mentioned were visited, and 6 agri- 

 cultural elementary schools, 8 chemical control experiment stations, 

 and 6 seed control stations. In other cases much information was 

 gained by correspondence. 



In this report the effort will be to give a comprehensive account of 

 the system of agricultural instruction and investigation in the Scandi- 

 navian countries and Finland, and to bring forward its characteristic 

 features. In order to convey some definite idea of the general condi- 



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