346 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and the greatest amount of time seems to be devoted to the 

 study of German, and to a consideration of the phenomena 

 of plant growth. Two points are especially worthy of no- 

 tice. One is the greater amount of time spent in the school- 

 room than in this country, thirty-six hours per week being 

 about the average ; and the other, the great attention paid 

 to book-keeping and the care with which the students are 

 taught to balance their accounts and compare the results of 

 each crop with the amount of capital and labor expended. 



The Supplemental, or Winter Schools, embrace two winter 

 courses, from November to March. This winter instruction 

 is followed up in the summer by the travelling lecturer, who 

 is frequently the director of one of these schools. The 

 course embraces the followinsr studies : — 



FIRST WINTER. 



Elementary chemistry (inor- 

 ganic) , 



Mineralogy and soils, 



Zoology, 



Cattle breeding, 



Dairying, 



Physics, — mechanics, electri- 

 city. 



Farm management, 



Book-keeping. 



SECOND WINTER. 



Elementary chemistry (organ- 

 ic), 



Botany and vegetable physiol- 

 ogy, 



Agricultural botany ; plant 

 diseases, 



IiTigation, 



Physics and meteorology, 



Farm management, — capital, 

 labor, oraranization. 



GENERAL CULTURE. 



German language, arithmetic, surveying, drawing. 



The special schools of Germany are worthy of particular 

 notice, for they cover ground briefly touched in the graded 

 courses, and furnish a practical special education to be 

 acquired in no other way. There were, in 1886, nine techni- 

 cal high schools and 994 industrial and trade schools. 

 Among others there were eighteen dairy schools ; six royal 

 academies of forestry, besides many of lower grade ; three 

 veterinary schools ; three shoeing schools, in connection 

 with the veterinary ; two drainage and irrigation ; three 

 bee-keeping ; several of gardening and political economy, 

 sugar making, brewery and distillery, fish culture ; and a 

 host of smaller farrier schools. In these last the instruction 



