106 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 41 



material as to live stock, horticulture, soils, and other lines was util- 

 ized as far as possible. Trips to farms, vineyards and gardens, cheese 

 factories, and other rural enterprises were a distinctive and excep- 

 tionally valuable feature of the work. Opportunity was thus af- 

 ford to observe at first hand the intensive farming and other special 

 methods used in France. One trip of particular interest was to the 

 district of La Perche, the home of the Percheron horse, and another 

 to the grape-growing sections of Burgundy. 



Closely coordinated with the college of agriculture was the uni- 

 versity farm school at Allerey. This school was developed shortly 

 after the opening of the university to provide instruction for soldiers 

 who could not meet the college requirements for admission. It was 

 located some fifteen miles from Beaune and, like the university, at 

 the site of a former hospital center. Several hundred buildings, 

 mostly of wooden construction, were hastily erected and instruction 

 begun early in April. 



The school faculty numbered about ninety, supplied in part by the 

 American Educational Commission, but mainly by details from the 

 Army, Supervision of its operations was vested in the college of 

 agriculture, with Mr. H. J. Baker, director of extension work in Con- 

 necticut, as principal. 



The instruction provided in the school was restricted to subjects 

 dealing directly with agriculture and country life, except for a prac- 

 tical course in English. Animal husbandry, agronomy, horticulture, 

 rural economics and sociology, and farm engineering comprised the 

 principal courses. About half of the students were without previous 

 faiTii experience, and a farm of about one hundred and fifty acres 

 constituted an important asset of the school, providing two-hour 

 practicums for each student in actual farm and garden practice. 



No fewer than eight thousand applications were received for en- 

 rollment in the school. Accommodations were available, however, 

 for only about three thousand students, making necessary a rigid 

 selection of candidates. 



It is estimated that from five thousand to ten thousand men re- 

 ceived agricultural instruction in the post and divisional schools of the 

 Army, and this number would doubtless have been considerably 

 larger but for the inability to obtain sufficient instructors. These 

 schools offered elementary courses of six to twelve weeks, usually en- 

 rolling from fifty to four hundred men each. They were held wher- 

 ever available space could be obtained. In the occupied portion of 

 Germany, abandoned agricultural schools were taken over in some in- 

 stances and the surrounding land used for practical instruction. Live 

 stock was sometimes secured for judging, and visits of observation to 

 nearby farms were of frequent occurrence. 



