AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 341 



It is true that in some few places the opposite view has been 

 held, and either farms have been added by purchase or ren- 

 tiil, or arrangements have been made with neighboring farm- 

 ers to allow their estates to be used for illustrating the 

 course of instruction. Still the fact remains, that as a class, 

 the German system rests on the separation of theory and 

 practice. 



A third point worthy of observation is that while the 

 lower agricultural education is obligatory, the higher is volun- 

 tary, and attendance is left to the option of the student. 

 This, however, is secured through the great inducements 

 offered by government to those taking courses in the two 

 highest grades. A compulsory term of three years' service 

 in the army is required of every citizen, but those students 

 passing the examinations required in the institutes and higher 

 agricultural schools, are allowed to take a one year's volun- 

 tary service. To young men just starting out in life, having to 

 make their own way, this escape from two years of drudgery, 

 while they are at. the same time fitting themselves for the 

 active duties of their profession, must be a strong induce- 

 ment. Again, instead of serving as privates for three years, 

 these one year volunteers serve as sub-officers at their own 

 expense, and in time of war the additional officers are drawn 

 from their ranks. 



One more point should be noted, that with the exception 

 of the institutes connected with the universities, none of these 

 schools are purely agricultural. Leaving out the dead 

 languages and the higher mathematics, their aim is to give a 

 liberal education. Object teaching is especially resorted to, 

 and even the schools of the lowest class are generously sup- 

 plied with diagrams, charts, implements and the like. 



Havino^ now sketched the salient features of as-ricultural 

 education in Germany, let us first endeavor to take a bird's- 

 eye view of the whole, and then consider in detail separate 

 grades or links in the common chain. Presiding over the 

 whole is the Minister of Agriculture and Central Bureau, 

 located at Berlin, with an Advisory Board, composed of 

 those graduates from the universities who have studied to 

 be overseers, renters, foresters, or who have paid particular 

 attention to the relations of taxation to property. These 



