The Quinta Nomad, or School of Agriculture. 301 



is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale of Paris, and his inde- 

 fatigable activity speedily insured the prosperity of the un- 

 dertaking. It is divided into two departments, a school of 

 agriculture proper, and a veterinary college. The course, 

 which comprises agriculture, botany, and treatment of dis- 

 eases of animals, besides the elements of chemistry, physiology, 

 geology, zoology, and geometry, besides geography and 

 drawing, extends over three years, every pupil educated at 

 the expense of the State being required to devote six years to 

 the public service. Government has reserved to itself thirty 

 free presentations, which it may increase to sixty. 



The small but well-arranged museum contains an admirably 

 selected collection of the most important esculents and grasses 

 suitable for foddering cattle, as also the conditions of soil which 

 are best suited for growing these, besides a number of differ- 

 ent fruits, executed in papier machS^ with remarkable fidelity 

 to nature, belonging to trees and plants, cultivated at the 

 Institute, with the purpose of ultimately selling them at the 

 proper time to farmers, and thus not only do justice to agri- 

 culture as a science, but increase its own revenue, not to 

 speak of the benefits, direct and indirect, to the country at 

 large. The purchaser is thus enabled to judge for himself 

 what description of fruit will be likely to prove most remu- 

 nerative to him, while the establishment at the same time 

 realizes a considerable sum by this sale of seedlings, plants, 

 and seeds, in a country where hitherto so little attention has 

 been bestowed on high-class agriculture. 



