iiUT] EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 493 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Agricultural education, E. Tisseband (Bui. Soc. Encour. Indus. Nat. [Paris]^ 

 127 (1917), No. 1. pp. 56-77). — The author reviews the development and present 

 status of agricultural education in France, and discusses its reorganization and 

 improvement. 



Among his recommendations are the reorganization of the entire agricul* 

 tural education service, including all gi'ades of in.stitutions. and the estahlish» 

 ment of a higher council of agricultural education, consisting of 24 members, 

 to supervise the functions of all parts of the service. The council should com- 

 prise three sections, dealing respectively with (1) higher instruction, including 

 the National Agricultural Institute, the national schools of agriculture, horti- 

 culture, agricultural industries, and dairying and cheese making, and agricul- 

 tural instruction in the faculties of universities; (2) the practical and special 

 schools of agriculture, farm schools, seasonal schools, winter schools, and 

 agricultural orphanages; and (3) the departmental and district chairs of 

 agriculture, and itinerant and home economics instruction. 



The character of the higher .scientific instruction of the agricultural insti- 

 tute should be strengthened and its equipment improved and extendetl. Its 

 course of study should be so revised as to turn out graduates who will 

 assure competent recruits for the national schools of streams and forests 

 and of horse breeding, and to make the institute, together with the national 

 schools of agriculture, a center for the training of professors and assistants, 

 directors of stations and laboratories, and technical agents for the public 

 agricultural service. The courses of study of the national schools of agricul- 

 ture should also be revisetl. 



Further recommendations include an increased number of practical schools 

 of agriculture, conserving their character of peasant schools, the revision of 

 their course of study and its limitation to two years, and the establishment in 

 connection with them as well as the farm schools of wood and machine shops 

 for the practical work of students; the development of the staff of departmental 

 and special district professors of agriculture; the multiplication of chairs of 

 agriculture in the lyceums, colleges, and higher primary school."^, as well as 

 of special winter schools and honie economics instruction for girls in rural 

 districts ; the revision of the salaries of the scientific research and instruction 

 staff, so that its members need not seek outside employment for a livelihood, 

 but could give their entire time and effort to their profession; and finally the 

 organization of correspondence courses in agriculture at the agricultural insti- 

 tute, the national schools, and the practical schools. 



Report of the acting secretary for agriculture (education) for the year 

 1914-15, A. Holm {Union So. Africa, Rpt. Sec. Agr. (Ed.), 1914-15, pp. 37). — 

 This is the third annual report of the section of the department of agriculture 

 of the Union of South Africa which deals with agi-icultural education, De- 

 taile<l information is given with reference to the staff, students, courses of 

 studies, extension and experimental work, buildings and equipment, cost of 

 e<lucation and maintenance, and finances, of each of the four agi-icultural schools 

 now in operation, located respectively at Elsenburg and Middelburg in the 

 Cape Province, Cedara in Natal, and Potchefstroom in the Transvaal. A fifth 

 school, with accommodations for 40 students, and a farm of 4,000 acres, has 

 been erected at Glen in the Orange Free State, but its opening has been post- 

 poned because of the financial stringency created by the war. 



At the beginning of the school year 1914 there were 205 students in resi- 

 dence at the four schools, but a large number left during the year to join the 

 military forces. At the beginning of the 1915 school year the attendant.'e. 



