304 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



A royal council of agriculture, composed of seven members, 

 is instituted for the purpose of examining and reporting to 

 the government upon such propositions as the Minister of the 

 Interior may submit for its consideration. The duties of the 

 councillors are honorary, the secretary alone receiving a salary. 

 This council is the centre of all the agricultural societies of the 

 country, but its connection with them is strictly administrative 

 or advisory, and consists mainly in keeping the minister 

 informed as to their organization, their proceedings, the laws 

 which it may be desirable to pass to make them more effective, 

 «fec. 



The agricultural institute at Hohenheim, the most successful 

 in Europe, is placed under its patronage and control. The 

 director of the college, who has absolute authority as to all the 

 internal details of the establishment, has to make his reports to 

 the royal agricultural council. 



There are from sixty to seventy agricultural societies organ- 

 ized by counties or departments. These make their reports to 

 the royal council. Some of these societies require no entrance 

 fee, the object being to induce the poorest farmers to become 

 members. They depend, to some extent, upon the aid of the. 

 government and more upon that of the department or county, 

 from which they ordinarily receive two or three times as mucli 

 as from the general government. From both sources they have 

 liberal encouragement. The presidents and secretaries of these 

 associations are chosen by themselves and receive no compensa- 

 tion. Four or five of the societies join each year in a kind of 

 agricultural congress. 



Besides these various means of encouragement extended 

 directly and indirectly by the government, honorary distinctions 

 are conferred upon eminent farmers of the country. Among 

 these distinctions are such titles, created and conferred by the 

 government, as Councillor of Agriculture, Councillor of Domains, 

 Privy Councillor, and Privy Councillor of His Majesty ; all of 

 which forms a sort of classification of farmers, according to the 

 proofs of qualification which each has given, so that when the 

 government has need of some special services it knows upon 

 whom to call, with a certainty of securing the particular quali- 

 fications it may re(juirc. 



