SECRETARY'S REPORT. 211 



in an immense, but not very fertile valley. I have seen it 

 intimated that the lands were so decidedly inferior and unpro- 

 ductive that the intention of the government in giving it over 

 to the school to be managed by scientific men was to put tlie 

 value of scientific principles in agriculture to the severest pos- 

 sible test. I believe, if such was the case, that there has been 

 little reason to exult in the triumphs gained over such power- 

 ful natural obstacles as a poor soil and an ungenial chmate, and 

 I think it may be taken to be as great a mistake to select land 

 for a model farm, or an agricultural college farm, tliat is much 

 below the average of natural fertility, as it would be to select 

 one very much above it. In the first case even scientific man- 

 agement can hardly be charged with the responsibility of a 

 failure to produce high crops, and in the latter, it would not 

 get the credit of whatever it did produce. Neither would be a 

 fair test of the skill and science applied to it. 



The character of the soil led to the early adoption of a twenty 

 years rotation, in which wheat came in but once, oats five 

 times, rye and barley one year each, grass occupying six years, 

 and one year being given over to an idle fallow. 



The buildings are old and immense in extent, arranged in 

 the form of parallelograms with broad open courts or yards 

 between. The whole has an air of majestic desolation. I do 

 not think palaces especially well adapted for the purposes of 

 agricultural schools. The endless stables were partly occupied 

 by horses belonging to the Bavarian cavalry. 



The course of instruction is more practical than theoretical, 

 that is, of the time devoted to study and training two-tliirds is 

 given to practical work and one-third to theoretical. 



The theoretical instruction, which comes mostly in winter 

 and on rainy days in summer, when it becomes impracticable 

 to work out-doors, embraces — 



1. Religion. A brief survey of the history of religion and 

 biblical history. 



2. Elementary studies, arithmetic, orthography. In arith- 

 metic, the fundamental rules and fractions, exercises in 

 reducing common currencies, weights and measures, and 

 measurements of space. It is especially mathematics applied 

 to agriculture. As large a proportion as possible is mental. 



