266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



but first-class cows for the dairy bring from eighteen to twenty 

 pounds. 



Vetches are sown in September, at the rate of two and a half 

 bushels of seed to the acre. With us, they thought, it would 

 be necessary to sow in April or May, and to sow about half a 

 bushel of beans or oats with them, as a support to the stalk. 

 They feed this crop out green for soiling. Sixteen varieties of 

 Swedes are cultivated on two acres ; and they say that none are 

 better than Skirving's Improved, — the only objection to it being 

 its bottle-neck. The Leicester Swede is exceedingly good. The 

 best for the table is Laing's. 



The flower-gardens and shrubbery about the house are kept 

 in superb order ; and, when I was there, every thing was loaded 

 with luxuriant foliage and teeming with fragrant blossoms. 

 Mrs, Kirkpatrick — to whom I was indebted for a great deal of 

 civility — took great delight in showing this part of the establish- 

 ment ; much of it, no doubt, due to her good taste and skill in 

 plamiing and directing. 



This statement with regard to some of the principal agricul- 

 tural schools in Europe might be considerably enlarged, but the 

 practice and instruction in the others are so similar to those that 

 have been given, that it is believed a pretty good general idea 

 of them all may be derived from the foregoing pages. It has 

 been seen, that a large and influential class of scientific men are 

 devoting their lives to pursuits connected with this important 

 branch of human knowledge ; some of them in institutions 

 designed expressly for this instruction, isolated and independ- 

 ent ; others in connection with other institutions, old and long 

 established. 



It can hardly be denied, that it is an important incidental 

 advantage to any country, resulting from the organization of 

 agricultural institutions, that it creates a class of men who 

 devote their higher intelligence and their entire lives to investi- 

 gations designed to promote the advancement of science in its 

 relations to practice. The constant contact with men learned in 

 the other professions and sciences ; the means of experiment and 

 study at their disposal in a college for professional instruction, 

 — like that at Hohenheim, for instance, — are eminently suited 

 to form and develop those choice intellects which add to the 



