29 



The Educational System. 



The Danish farmer is an educated man. He receives not only an excellent public 

 and high school education, but a large per cent of the tillers of the soil attend agricultural 

 schools. Attendance at the public schools is compulsory between the ages of seven and 

 fourteen, inclusive. Nature study is a prominent feature of the work. Some schools are 

 provided with school gardens, while in the case of others the children are carried freely on 

 the state railways to the country where lessons are given direct from nature. 



Over ten per cent of the population pass through the high schools, of which there are 

 more than seventy in Denmark. Both men and women attend at ages from sixteen to 

 twenty-five. The fee for instruction is comparatively low, and provision is made for the 

 state to defray even this in the case of deserving young men or women who cannot afford 

 to pay their own way. The instruction given at these schools is not designed to teach 

 applied sciences, but rather to develop personal character, to brighten the intellect, and to 

 inculcate principles of integrity, thus preparing them for the battle of life that is keen, not 

 only in all trades, but in agriculture as well. 



The early high schools took up agricultural chemistry and other sciences underlying 

 the practice of agriculture. The importance of these subjects led to the establishing of 

 purely agricultural schools, of which there are forty-four. Fifteen of these are entirely 

 separate from high schools, one is purely a dairy school, and twenty-nine are closely associ- 

 ated with high schools. Pupils range from eighteen to twenty -five years, and, as in the case 

 of the high schools, they board at the institution. These schools, like the high schools, 

 although receiving small government grants, were erected and are conducted by private 

 enterprise. To secure these schools in many cases farmers, chiefly small proprietors, sub- 

 scribed to the funds from which they were built and equipped. A farm of greater or less 

 area is attached to most of these schools. This is run on a business basis and serves as a 

 demonstration of the value of scientific methods. All of the ordinary farm crops are grown, 

 and live stock of the several classes are kept. At these institutions men are trained to farm , 

 there being no examination and no certificate granted. There are throughout the country 

 a number of agricultural experiment stations taking up such work as the comparative tests 

 of various varieties of grains, clovers, grasses, mixtures, methods of cultivation, times of 

 sowing, etc. The reports of these institutions are eagerly studied by agricultural students, 

 as also by the rank and file of Danish farmers. 



The higher agricultural educational work is done at the University at Copenhagen, 

 known as the Royal Agricultural and Veterinary Institute. 



The Commission had a profitable visit to this well equipped and renowned institu- 

 tion, under the direction of the Principal, J. Hoffman Bang. This is a magnificient college 

 standing amongst the foremost of its kind in the world. It is conducted by the state for 

 the training of teachers in agricultural and veterinary science, also the better fitting of men 

 to conduct large farms. Many sons of prominent farmers train at this institution to go 

 home to manage their own establishments. The attendance of students in agriculture 

 proper, including dairying, is from 125 to 150 per year, while about an equal number attend 

 to study forestry, horticulture, surveying and veterinary science. The course in agricul- 

 ture is for two years, but an additional year's course is provided for advanced students who 



