352 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



huge box on wheels, the sides of which, parting in the centre, 

 lift up and let down, forming the roof and flooring to a room 

 some ten feet square. This is fitted up with the latest and best 

 appliances for dairy use. It is surrounded by a gallery hav- 

 ing accommodations for seventy or eighty spectators. A 

 lecturer, dairy-maid and assistant constitute the working 

 force. While the churning is going on, the lecturer explains 

 the apparatus and the methods employed, or answers the 

 questions put to him. 



Higher agricultural education in England, as represented 

 by the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and the 

 Downton College of Agriculture, owes its origin to the 

 persistent efforts of private individuals. I have chosen the 

 former as a type of this class. Its object* is to give a 

 training suited to the needs of the following classes : — 

 land owners, land occupiers, agents, stewards, factors, 

 surveyors, intending colonists, employees in Indian agri- 

 culture, forestry, etc. It has a stafi" of eleven professors, 

 five assistants and a manager of the farm. Its course 

 extends over two years and one term, the last term 

 being taken up with examinations for the diploma of 

 the college. No entrance examination is required. The 

 fees are $675 per annum for in-students, and $375 for out- 

 students, furnished private rooms in the college being at an 

 extra charge of $150 a year. These fees include board, 

 and, in fact, all college charges, except laundry, books, fines 

 and damage. It is evident from the charges that only the 

 sons of those in easy circumstances can avail themselves of 

 the benefits of this education. The farm, containing about 

 four hundred and fifty acres of arable land, is divided into 

 twenty fields, and the rotation followed is that known as the 

 Norfolk four-course. Sheep are the chief stock (Cotswolds, 

 of which a breeding flock of some five hundred is main- 

 tained), but special attention is also paid to Berkshire pigs. 

 The following studies are pursued : — 



Sessions 1 and 2. Practical Agriculture (soils, manures, 

 implements, labor, buildings). Chemistry (inorganic). Book- 

 keeping, Mensuration, Physics, Geology or Botany or 



* Propectns Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 1885. 



