137 



AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. 



AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. 



133 



possesses a good agricultural museum in the society's house in Kildare 

 Street. 



In England there are no institutions of a public nature which com- 

 bine scientific with practical instruction in agriculture. The advantage 

 of establishing such an institution was -suggested by the poet Cowley ; 

 and in 1799 Marshall published 'Proposals for a Royal Institute or 

 College of Agriculture and other branches of Rural Economy.' There 

 is the Sibthorpiau Professorship of Rural Economy in the university of 

 Oxford ; at the university of Edinburgh, a professorship of agriculture; 

 and at the university of Aberdeen there are lectures on agriculture. 

 The botanical, geological, and chemical professorships and lectures in 

 the different universities are, to a certain extent, auxiliary to the 

 science of agriculture. In the absence of such establishments as the 

 one at Grignon, in France, young men are sent as pupils to fanners in 

 the counties where the best system of agriculture is practised, espe- 

 cially Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, and the Lothians ; but 

 although this may lie a good plan for obtaining practical knowledge, it 

 is imperfect as regards the knowledge gained of the scientific principles 

 of agriculture. The Earl of Ducie established a model or example 

 farm on his estate hi Gloucestershire, where the scientific principles of 

 agriculture were carried into operation ; but this was very different 

 fn>m an institution which imparts a knowledge of these principles. In 

 1839 the late B. F. Duppa, Esq., published a short pamphlet entitled 

 'Agricultural Colleges, or Schools for the Sons of Farmers,' which 

 contains many usefiJ suggestions for the establishment of such institu- 

 tions. He laboured indefatigably in the promotion of this object, and 

 probably would have succeeded but for his premature death. Ciren- 

 cester College, which was established in 1846, and originated in a paper 

 on Agricultural Education, read by Mr. Robert J. Brown of that town 

 before a local farmers' club, gives instruction in the higher branches of 

 agricultural knowledge. Students are admitted either as boarders or 

 out-students, the first class paying from 55 to 80 guineas per annum ; 

 the last, 40 guineas. The college is conducted by a principal, with 

 professors of chemistry ; of zoology, geology, and botany ; of veterinary 

 medicine, and surgery; of surveying, civil engineering, and mathematics ; 

 and of practical agriculture. The college has acquired a high reputa- 

 tion, is consequently well attended, and therefore prosperous. 



Schools of industry, similar to the one established by the late Rev. 

 \V. L. Rham at Winkfield, and by the Earl of Lovelace at Ockley, may 

 be made the medium of imparting an acquaintance with the principles 

 of agriculture, which at present the labouring classes do not usually 

 obtain. Other institutions of a like nature have been established 

 in various places, and at the Reformatory School at Kedhill, where a 

 farm if, cultivated by the boys, who are thoroughly instructed in prac- 

 tical agriculture. 



In Ireland the government affords direct encouragement to agricul- 

 tural education through the instrumentality of the Board of National 

 Education. The persons who .ire trained for the office of teachers in 

 the national schools are required to attend the lectures of a professor of 

 agricultural chemistry ; and during a portion of the tune occupied in 

 > iug for their future duties they are placed at the model farm at 

 Glasnevin, where they are lodged, and where, during five mornings of 

 the week, they attend lectures on the principles of agriculture ; and an 

 examination subsequently takes place. On the sixth morning they are 

 taken over the farm, and the operations going forward are explained to 

 them. The Board admits a certain number of in-door pupils for the 

 term of at least two years, who pay 101. a year for board, lodging and 

 education. They work on the farm, attend the lectures, and receive 

 such instruction as qualifies them to fill the office of bailiffs. There is 

 likewise a class of schoolmasters trained to conduct agricultural schools. 

 Thirty-seven model schools are established in different ]>arts of the 

 country. The Agricultural Seminary at Templemoyle, six miles from 

 Londonderry, is one of the most successful experiment* which has yet 

 made in the United Kingdom to establish an institution for 

 agricultural education. It was founded by the North West of Ireland 

 .Society. The plan is in some degree taken from the institution esta- 

 blished by M. Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, in Switzerland. An account of 

 tin; institution and of the course of instruction will be found in the 

 ' Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education,' p. 565, 8vo, ed. 

 Power has also been given to Boards of Guardians to hold land for the 

 |mr|K>se of instructing the workhouse boys in agricultural labour, and 

 the plan has been adopted by many unions with considerable success. 



.Such societies as the Scottish Agricultural Chemistry Association, 



i-staWished at the close of 1 843, were very well calculated to advance the 



w of scientific agriculture ; and they might be established in any 



district where a sufficient number of subscribers can be obtained to 



i uid the sen-ices of a competent chemist. Associations of this 



nature show how much can be done in this country without any assist- 



in tin' state. The object of the Scottish association was the 



; >n of existing information, theoretical and practical, by means of 



occasional expositions, addresses, and correspondence ; and secondly, 



the enlargement of the present store of knowledge by experimental 



investigations of practical agriculturist* in the field and of the chemist 



in the laboratory. l.an<led proprietors who subscribed twenty shillings 



y>. uly, and tenant* who subscribed ten shillings yearly, were entitled 



performed :in.ih.-.-s of soils, manures, &c., according to a scale 



<l>n : and if more than a certain number were required, a charge 



of one-half above the scale was made. Letters of advice, without 



an analysis being required, were charged 2s 6<i. Every agricultural 

 society subscribing 5?. yearly to the funds of the Association was 

 entitled to one lecture from the chemist ; if 101. to two lectures, &c. 

 Counties which subscribed 201. annually were entitled to appoint a 

 member of the Committee of Management. The chemist of the 

 association had his laboratory at Edinburgh, but he visited various 

 parts of Scotland according to certain regulations. We give the details 

 of this institution, though obliged now to speak of it in the past tense. 

 It was well deserving of a longer life ; and might be usefully revived 

 upon a smaller scale in many limited localities. In Scotland most of 

 its offices are now accomplished by the chemical officer of the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society. 



In France there are schools assisted by the state, where young 

 persons can obtain instruction in agriculture, both practical and 

 theoretical. The principal institution of this kind is that at Grignon, 

 where one of the old royal palaces and the domain attached to it, 

 consisting of 1185 acres of arable, pasture, wood, and marsh land, has 

 been given up on certain conditions. The professors are paid by the 

 government, and the pupils are of two grades, one paying 48/. a year, 

 and the other 361. For the purpose of imparting theoretical know- 

 ledge, courses of lectures are given on the following subjects : 1, The 

 rational principles of husbandry, and on the management of a farm ; 2, 

 The principles of rural economy applied to the employment of the 

 capital and stock of the farm ; 3, the most approved methods of 

 keeping farming accounts ; 4, The construction of farm-buildings, 

 roads, and implements used in husbandly ; 5, Vegetable physiology 

 and botany ; 6, Horticulture ; 7, Forest science ; 8, The general 

 principles of the veterinary art ; 9, The laws relating to property ; 



10, Geometry applied to the measurement and surveying of land ; 



11, Geometrical drawing of fanning implements ; 12, Physics as applied 

 to agriculture ; 13,. Chemistry, as applied to the analysis of soils, 

 manures, &c; 14, Certain general notions of mineralogy and geology ; 

 15, Domestic medicine, applied to the uses of husbandmen. The 

 practical part of the education is conducted on the following system : 

 The pupils are instructed in succession in all the different labours of 

 the farm. Some, for instance, under the direction of the professor of 

 the veterinary art, perform the operations required by the casualties 

 which are continually occurring in a numerous stock of cattle. Others 

 are appointed to attend to the gardens, and to the following depart- 

 ments : woods and plantations ; inspection of repairs taking place on 

 the premises ; making of starch, cheese, and other articles ; the pharma- 

 ceutical department ; book-keeping and the accounts. A daily register 

 is kept of the amount of the manure obtained from the cattle of every 

 kind. A pupil newly entered is appointed to act with one of two 

 years' standing ; and at the end of each week all are expected to make 

 a report, in the presence of their comrades, of whatever has been done 

 during the week in their respective departments. The professor, who 

 presides over the practical part of their education, explains on the spot 

 the proper manner of executing the various field operations ; and he 

 also gives his lectures on these different processes at the time when 

 they are in actual progress. The professors in each department render 

 their courses as practical as possible ; the professor of botany by 

 herborisations ; the professor of chemistry by geological excursions ; 

 the professor of mathematics, by executing, on the plan he has pointed 

 out, the survey and measurement of certain portions of land. After 

 two years' training in the theory and practice of rural economy, the 

 pupils undergo an examination from the professors collectively, and, if 

 satisfactory, a diploma is granted, which certifies to the capacity of the 

 pupil for fulfilling the duties of what may be styled an ' Agricultural 

 Engineer.' 



Institutions designed for the improvement of agriculture, and sup- 

 ported by the state, have been established in most parts of Germany. 

 In Prussia there is a public model farm and agricultural academy in 

 nearly every province. The most important of these institutions is the 

 one at Mogelin, in Brandenburg, about 40 miles from Berlin, which 

 was founded by the late king. Von Thaer was at one period the 

 director. The establishment consists of a college and a model farm of 

 1200 acres. When visited by Mr. Jacob, in 1820 (' Agriculture, &c., of 

 Germany '), there were three professors, who resided upon the premises ; 

 one for mathematics, chemistry, and geology ; one for the veterinary 

 art ; and the third for botany and the use of the various vegetable pro- 

 ductions in the Materia Medica, as well as for entomology. Attached 

 to the institution there was a botanic garden, arranged on the Linmean 

 system ; an herbarium ; a museum containing skeletons of domestic 

 animals, models of agricultural implements, specimens of soils, &c. 

 The various implements were made in workshops upon the farm, and 

 the pupils were expected to acquire a general notion of the modes of 

 constructing them. The sum paid by each pupil was very high, not 

 less than 801. a year. 



At Hohenheim, in the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, two leagues from 

 Stuttgard, an old palace has been appropriated as an agricultural 

 college. The quantity of land attached to the institution is about 

 1000 acres. The pupils are of two grades, and those belonging to the 

 superior class pay for their board 150 florins, and for their instruction 

 300 florins a year, or altogether 371., and extra expenses make the 

 annual cost about 50/. Natives of Wiirtemberg are admitted at a lower 

 rate than the subjects of other states. The higher class of students do 

 not, as at Grignon, take part in the actual labours of husbandry; but 



