374 On Public Institutions for the 



bad, that, it is said, the intention of Government in giving it up to 

 the management of men of science vt^as to put the utility of 

 philosophical principles in .agriculture to the severest possible 

 test. The result, however, has not been such as to afford the 

 conductors much reason to exult in any triumph gained over 

 nature, and indeed it is obvious, that to found a model farm on 

 land greatly belov^^ the ordinary standard of fertility, is equally a 

 mistake^ as it would be to devote to such a purpose soil of extra- 

 ordinary natural productiveness. The one can hardly be im- 

 proved, the other scarcely injured, by the method of culture 

 adopted ; and hence neither kind is calculated to elicit, or to 

 display, the skill and science of those who conduct its management. 



Owing to the barrenness of the soil, a twenty years' rotation is 

 introduced at Schleissheim, in which wheat only occurs once; 

 oats five times ; barley and rye each once ; whilst during six years 

 out of the whole number the land is laid down in grass, and one 

 year is suffered to lie entirely fallow. 



Of the other establishments of the kind that are dispersed 

 throughout Germany I have no personal knowledge, though I 

 understand that schools of agriculture exist at Vienna, Prague, 

 Pesth, and other places. So long ago as the year 1820, Dr. 

 Bright visited one in Hungary, which had been set on foot by 

 the patriotic Graf Festitits, on his estate at Keszthely. Dr. 

 Bright, in his ' Travels,' states, that the school was divided into three 

 departments, viz., simple agriculture, mathematics in connection 

 with the same, and the necessary knowledge of physics as well as 

 of the veterinary art : for each of these two professors are ap- 

 pointed, making in all six. The complete course of study was 

 fixed at three years, during the course of which the students were 

 subjected to an annual examination. 



I am likewise but little acquainted with the agricultural esta- 

 blishments existing in Italy ; although I paid a cursory visit in 

 1840 to one under the direction of Professor Comolli, near Pavia, 

 and have heard great praises of that which the Marquis Rodolphi 

 superintends in the neighbourhood of Florence. 



On the Agricultural Establishments of Ireland. 



Passing over these, let us come a little nearer home, and con- 

 sider the institutions which have of late sprung up within the 

 sister kingdom of Ireland, where the great body of landed pro- 

 prietors seem to have their eyes opened to the importance, not 

 only of model farms, but likewise of schools for the education 

 of those who are designed for husbandry. I have been favoured 

 with letters from the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Im- 

 provement Society at Dublin^ and from the Manager of the 



