AGRICULTUEAL EDUCATION. 349 



ique at Paris, the two graduating with the highest honors 

 hold for three years a scholarship enabling them to prosecute 

 their studies at home or travel abroad. They are required, 

 however, to send home to the director, at stated intervals, 

 reports of what they have observed, and these reports are 

 printed. At the great horticultural school at Versailles, we 

 find, in like manner, scholarships worth $250, and held for a 

 year, given as rewards to those passing the best examinations. 

 At one of the farm or primary schools, $60 is given to 

 every pupil receiving a certificate of having faithfully per- 

 formed his duty and profited by the instruction. And no 

 less than $34,000 a year is ofiered by the government in 

 prizes for the best-managed farms in those departments 

 where fairs are held. Again, the government recommends 

 that, in the selection of teachers, preference should be given 

 to those able to impart instruction in agricultural subjects, 

 and in some of the departments it is made a requisite of the 

 first importance. Can we wonder that with incentives such 

 as these, appealing to instructor and pupil, and to the tiller 

 of the soil himself, that agriculture and agricultural educa- 

 tion in France should have received an impetus that has made 

 it second to none in the whole world ? 



The difierent grades in the French system of agricultural 

 education are four : First, the Institut National Agronora- 

 ique at Paris, representing the highest form of education ; 

 second, the Eegional schools, three in number (the 86 de- 

 partments of France are divided according to location into 

 three regions, and in each of these a school of higher educa- 

 tion is established) ; third, the Practical Schools of Agricul- 

 ture, nine in number, designed for the sons of those in 

 moderate circumstances, who can afibrd to pay something for 

 their education; fourth, the Farm Schools in the difierent 

 departments, twenty in number, furnishing an education free 

 to the sons of laborers and small farmers. In addition to this 

 graded system are forty or more evening schools, the special 

 schools, and the Departmental Professors of Agriculture, 

 fifty five in number, whose duty it is to deliver lectures on 

 agriculture to the teachers and agriculturists of their district. 

 A noticeable fact in the higher schools is the generous pro- 

 vision made for instruction. In the Institut National there 



