72 FRANCE 



farm or holding. Other associations did the 

 same, and then, as they accumulated funds, 

 they provided their members with medical 

 attendance and financial help, they established 

 a system of old-age pensions, and they also made 

 provision for the support of orphans. 



To the educational work carried on by the 

 agricultural associations a considerable degree 

 of importance must be attached. From the 

 very outset they sought not only to enable 

 farmers and small cultivators to purchase fertil- 

 izers, but to instruct them thoroughly concern- 

 ing their use and purpose. In this way it was 

 that they began their work of promoting the 

 higher education of the French agriculturist. 

 They continued it by issuing periodicals and 

 almanacs, to which the leading authorities in 

 agricultural science sent contributions written 

 in popular style ; they published text-books and 

 established libraries ; they engaged professors of 

 agriculture who delivered lectures, gave free 

 consultations, carried out analyses, and directed 

 experimental farms ; and they have followed up 

 with much zeal a movement started in Brittany, 

 in 1892, for giving elementary instruction in 

 agricultural subjects in the primary schools, 

 certificates and diplomas being awarded to the 

 children who pass examinations therein. 



