350 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is a teaching force oi forty-two., while in each of the Regional 

 schools the instructors number from twenty to thirty. Even 

 in the elementary schools great care is taken to make the in- 

 struction as thorough and practical as possible. The fol- 

 lowing is the text of the ordinance of the 10th of October, 

 1887, decreeing the teaching of agriculture in the higher 

 primary schools of Dourdan. The scholars, be it under- 

 stood, are from ten to fourteen years of age. After first de- 

 claring that there shall be a special course in agriculture, it 

 goes on : — 



Aet. II. This instruction shall include a course in agriculture 

 and a course in the hygiene of domestic animals, embracing the 

 following subjects : General agriculture, special crops, rural 

 economy, horticulture and arboriculture, zootechny (general and 

 special), diseases of plants, insects injurious and beneficial. 



Art. III. The course in agriculture shall consist of about a 

 hundred lectures, that of hygiene of twenty. The whole shall be 

 supplemented by agricultural excursions and practical exercises in 

 a garden or experimental plot. 



Art. IV. The professor of agriculture shall give an adult 

 course in the evening, in winter, but on Sunday afternoons in 

 summer. * 



A pleasant and very profitable feature of the Institut is 

 the sending out of the students during vacation, for practical 

 work and observation, to farms of known reputation, either 

 in France or in foreign countries, the pupil paying from $15 

 to $20 a month to the proprietor for this privilege, and being 

 required to make a carefully written report to the director 

 of the result of his observations. Five thousand dollars are 

 annually spent in this way. The amount of money ex- 

 pended by the government each year, over and above re- 

 ceipts, in aid of these schools, is something surprising, even 

 in this State, noted for its generosity in educational matters. 

 The sums are distributed as follows : — 



Institut National $50,000 00 



Regional schools, 80,7G0 00 



Agi-icultural and Farm schools, 114,800 00 



Evening schools, 30,000 00 



Departmental professors, 35,000 00 



*Minist6re de 1' agriculture. Bulletiu, Vol. G, No. 7, 1887. 



