the Austro- Hungarian Empire. 337 



structures. The college is provided with a vineyard, a good 

 nursery for fruit-trees, a botanical garden, an experimental 

 field, in which I noticed plots of English and foreign wheat, 

 English oats and beans, as well as examples of other cultivated 

 plants. The farm is divided into fields, each of which has its 

 own particular rotation. The students must have spent one year 

 upon a farm studying the practice of agriculture, and be above 

 seventeen years old before they are admitted to the college. After 

 they have completed their course, they seek junior positions upon 

 the large landed estates of the country, and work up gradually 

 to the dignity of head stewards and directors. Farmers, in our 

 sense of the word, do not appreciate the institution. The students 

 pass an examination every session, and at the close of their 

 course undergo no final examination, but a combination of all 

 their previous certificates is presented to them properly signed. 

 Professor Engelbrecht drove me round the college-farm and a 

 portion of the beautiful estate of Count Festatecs. The good 

 agriculture and high class of stock and horses upon the Count's 

 estate are open to the inspection of the students, and must be a 

 great advantage to them. The college receives 40,000 fl. (4000/.) 

 per annum from the Government. 



Debreczin is also a beautifully situated town, and the agricul- 

 tural college there is a new but thriving institution. Professor 

 Tormay, since removed to Pesth, was, at the time of my visit, 

 director of this college. He is an enthusiastic teacher, and a 

 most able man. Under his care the botanical gardens were 

 developing most successfully, and I was particularly struck with 

 the fine anatomical and physiological collection in the college 

 museum. The fai'm is divided into fields by means of pleasant 

 grass drives, and the professors are justly proud of the state of 

 their crops and land. Much attention is also evidently given to 

 the improvement of cattle and sheep. I examined, in company 

 Avith Professor Tormay, his Mestir-Merino, the result of a cross 

 made thirty years since between the pure Merino and the old 

 spiral-horned Hungarian sheep. This old breed was crossed 

 three or four times forward with the Merino, and subsequently it 

 has been bred inter se, and improved by selection. These sheep 

 resemble the Merino, but are longer in the fleece, and clip some- 

 thing more than 5 English lbs. per head. They are also prolific, 

 forty-six ewes in 1870 having produced sixty -four lambs. 



After visiting the three principal agricultural colleges, I came 

 to the conclusion that they constituted one of the most encouraging 

 features of the agriculture of Hungary, and of the future pros- 

 perity of the nation. Most of the stewards have been educated 

 at one or other of these institutions, and their early training no 

 doubt bears fruit in the accuracy and system observable upon the 



VOL. X. — S. S. ' Z 



