264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The course of instruction comprises : — 



1st. A sound English education, including reading, writing, 

 grammar, and composition, geography, history, arithmetic, 

 book-keeping, the elements of geometry and algebra, and land 

 surveying. 



2d. In the agricultural department — The elements of agri- 

 cultural chemistry and of animal and vegetable physiology ; 

 drainage ; tillage by manual and horse labor, with the descrip- 

 tion and use of the different implements necessary ; rotation of 

 crops ; preparation of the soil for, time and mode of sowing, 

 after-culture, harvesting and economizing the different crops 

 cultivated ; the best modes of collecting and preserving 

 manures, with the nature and utility of stimulants and special 

 manures, the crops to which they should be applied, at what 

 time, and in what quantity ; the breeding, rearing, house-feed- 

 ing, and general management of the different kinds of live 

 stock ; and the mode of keeping farm accounts, <fec. 



Tiie school farms are managed by men who were trained at 

 the Glasnevin establishment, and who are expected to carry out 

 the most approved and economical modes of farming. They 

 are provided with improved farm implements, approved seeds 

 and manures. The live stock is, in many cases, of pure blood, 

 and, in some cases, pure-bred sires are kept partly for home 

 use, and partly for the improvement of the stock in the sur- 

 rounding country. 



The farm offices are also arranged on approved principles, 

 and substantially built. 



It will be seen, from what has been said, that agricultural 

 instruction forms a prominent part of the system of national 

 education, — that this instruction is comparatively open and free 

 to all who are prepared by an ability to pass a reasonable exam- 

 ination, — the cost being so low, as to bring its advantages within 

 the reach of all classes. There are one hundred and thirty-four 

 of these branch schools where agriculture is taught. 



The Albert Model Farm and Institution, which stands at the 

 head of the whole system, is worthy of the name it bears. The 

 land of this farm is hired at four pounds, or twenty dollars, the 

 statute acre a year rent, on a lease of nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine years. Here the boys do all the work, — a man being hired 

 now and then, as an exception, for some special employment. 



