2 26 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Scotland enjoys deservedly the distinction of having been first 

 among the peoples of Europe to introduce in the university course 

 scientific education in agriculture. In 1790 a chair was established 

 in the University of Edinburgh, and a course of agricultural lec- 

 tures was given therefrom by Eev. D. Walker. Better than that, 

 in 1743 a volume entitled Select Transactions was published by 

 Maxwell, representing the agricultural society known as the " So- 

 ciety of Improvers," and numbering at one time three hundred 

 members. Out of this society grew the " Highland and Agricul- 

 tural Society," which organization has fostered every agricultural 

 effort which private beneficence or royal grant has initiated in the 

 land since 1834. Through its munificence both the departments of 

 forestry and veterinary surgery have been placed upon a firm edu- 

 cational basis, and the educational lectureship of Edinburgh Uni- 

 versity has been permanently endowed. It has instituted its own 

 syllabus of examinations for granting " Eellowships in Agricul- 

 ture," and stimulated pupils of the secondary schools to make the 

 effort by offering prizes and scholarships to the ambitious students. 



The University of Aberdeen has lately entered the field as an 

 agricultural educator by becoming what the Government styles a 

 " collegiate center," receiving a straight subsidy of £100 per an- 

 num, and furnishing professional instructors to rural assemblies 

 arranging lectures for them. In the public schools of Scotland 

 agricultural science is arranged for as an optional study from the 

 third to the sixth standards inclusive. In 1895-'96, 4,148 pupils 

 jjassed examinations in the subject, and the cost of this to the state 

 was £42,792. In 1896-'97 pupils in the " evening continuation 

 schools" to the number of 1,089 passed in agriculture, and 115 

 others in horticulture. 



England and Wales are under a joint administration of agricul- 

 tural affairs. The Government policy, so far as it has one, has 

 been continually opposed to paternalism and direct subsidy or own- 

 ership of schools. Rather has her Parliament waited to be solicited 

 to make subventions by way of encouraging individual or local 

 society initiative. The fiourishing agricultural schools at Ciren- 

 cester and Downton, for the instruction of the higher classes, have 

 grown out of private establishments, then been perpetuated by ob- 

 taining royal charters, by which the Government became pledged 

 to supply any lack of income. But since 1893 the state has so far 

 relaxed her policy as to grant subsidies to certain colleges centrally 

 located, which it styles " collegiate centers," through which col- 

 leges it offers superior instruction to the public. These colleges 

 associate with themselves ample farm lands for experiment grounds 

 and dairy machinery, and equip themselves with competent lee- 



