148 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



manures, double crops, at least, rnay thus be raised ; and under- 

 the application of the ordinary manures, crops tenfold greater thart 

 usual. 



The various salts were prepared by me from their carbonates- 

 I am, &c." 



[Frosn the Spectator.]' 



MODEL FARMS TN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 



An important step has been made to promote agricultural edu- 

 cation in Scotland. During the late agricultural meeting in Glas- 

 gow, a number of gentlemen favorable to the establishment of ele- 

 mentary schools for the purpose, met in the merchants' hall j. 

 when, besides gentlemen connected wdth the Agricultural Chem- 

 istry Association of Scotland, several strangers attended, including 

 Lord Wallscourt, Lord Clements, Lord Ranelagh, Sir Robert 

 Bateson, Sir R. Houston, and others. The Lord Justice Clerk 

 took the chair ; and Professor Johnston explained the object of the 

 meeting. Mr. Skilling, superintendent of a model farm at Glass- 

 nevin, near Dublin, under the Irish Board of Education, made a 

 statement of the measures carried out by the board since 1838- 

 There are now three thousand teachers under the board ; there are 

 seven training establishments to supply teachers, but there wdlf 

 shortly be twenty-five ; and it is intended to plant one in every 

 county of Ireland. Mr. Skilling described the plan pursued at 

 the Glassnevin training school, established in 1838 j the class of 

 labor is limited to spade husbandry, only the spade and w'heel-bar- 

 row being used : 



" The scholars, amounting to sixty or seventy, were lodged near 

 the farm, and fed from it. After being engaged on the farm in the 

 mornings of five days in the week, they w^ent into the town for 

 their literary education ; but the whole of Saturday was appropri- 

 ated to examinations. They had a garden, and, in connexion with 

 it, a competent gardener, who lectvired for one half hour in the 

 morning ; and he (Mr. Skilling) also lectured to the young men 

 on agricultural subjects. At stated periods, the teachers attended 

 the farm, and witnessed every practical operation which was going 

 on upon it. They observed every system of cropping, and got ex- 

 planations on every subject with which they were unacquainted ; 

 and the result was, that when they went away at the end of the 

 course^ they were found to be vastly improved in the scientific 

 knowledge of agriculture and its practical details. During the 

 course, they were enabled to obtain a considerable knowledge of 



