230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I believe the practice is to have one of the two on each 

 committee of two years standing and the other a newly-entered 

 pupil. At the end of the week all are required to make a 

 report in the presence of the whole school, when the professor 

 comments or enlarges upon the various operations going on, 

 and gives such additional information as may be suggested by 

 the facts presented. In addition to this exercise, which has 

 the effect to train the young men in the art of composition and 

 the skilful use of language, as well as to keep them informed 

 of the working of the whole system, the professor takes the 

 classes to see the various operations on the farm, pointing out 

 the most approved method of performing them, &c. He lec- 

 tures thus on the different practical processes of farming at the 

 seasons when they actually take place. 



Each professor, in his own department, moreover, is expected 

 to give his instruction a practical turn, by means of short 

 excursions, botanical, geological, &c. 



It is thus they are initiated into the daily routine of the farm, 

 and become the active agents of this great rival administration. 

 Whenever an interesting experiment is proposed by a student, 

 the director puts the machinery, animals, &c., at the disposal 

 of the professors or tutors, and the pupils are designated to 

 make the investigations. 



The school takes only inside pupils ; that is, they must all 

 live on the place. No one is admitted except on a preparatory 

 examination at the chief place of his department, and final 

 trials also take place at the school. The candidate must be 

 seventeen years old, and be a Frenchman or a naturalized 

 citizen. Whoever desires to enter must address his application 

 to the Minister of Agriculture, on or before the 25th September 

 of each year, with certificates — 



1st. Of the place and date of birth. 



2d. Certificate of the mayor of his residence, to the effect 

 that he is of good life and morals. 



3d. Of a physician, that he has been vaccinated, and has 

 had the petit j^arioloid. 



4th. An obligation, on stamped paper, by the parents, tutor, 

 or guardian of the candidate, to guarantee the payment, a term 

 in advance, of his board during his sojourn at the school. 



