174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The arrangement with regard to orplians was kept up, the 

 number being limited to twenty-five, who were required to 

 spend two years at Hohenheim, in order to get sufficient agri- 

 cultural knowledge to be capable of becoming teachers in 

 schools for the advancement of agriculture in their own dis- 

 tricts, but this arrangement was given up in 1828 on account 

 of the cost. 



Special Courses. — A school of gardening was established 

 in 1814 at the same place, but still independent of the others. 

 Six pupils only were admitted into this, and each must have 

 attained the age of seventeen years. Each applicant must have 

 spent three years as gardener or vintager, or attended the 

 course at a farm school, and the garden school aimed in one 

 course to perfect what had previously been begun in the art of 

 gardening and fruit culture. Then, in addition, there were 

 established at the same place, special courses for orchardists, 

 meadow husbandry, shepherds and school teachers. 



The course for orchardists, which has been continued since 

 1850, was designed for young men of 18 years and upward 

 who wished to prepare themselves for managers of the fruit 

 trees belonging to the communes or parishes, of which there 

 are immense numbers everywhere around the villages and high- 

 ways of the kingdom. This course lasts from four to five 

 weeks in the spring of each year, and a few days later in summer 

 for practice in grafting. On account of the crowd of applicants 

 to this course, in the last few years, from all parts of the king- 

 dom, it became necessary to extend it to three courses a year, 

 with from fifteen to twenty pupils in each, so that now this 

 theoretic and practical instruction in fruit culture continues 

 from the middle of March to the end of May, and a continua- 

 tion of the course occurs also in August. 



The five weeks' course upon the technical management of 

 meadows, has been continued regularly in the spring since 

 1855, whenever there has been a sufficient number of' appli- 

 cants. It includes the art of treating meadows, field drainage, 

 the establishment of boundaries or practice in applied geom- 

 etry, for those who wish to perfect themselves in farm engineer- 

 ing. The number of attendants on this course has averaged 8. 



The course of instruction for shepherds was opened for the 

 first time in 1855, and has continued uninterruptedly since with 



