107 



Teaching Agriculture in Railway-Trains. (Mark Lane Ex- 

 press, London, March, 1910. Journal of the Board of Agriculture ^ 

 April 1910, p. 52). 



Great Britain has followed the example set by America in 

 building railway cars which can be fitted up to demonstrate the 

 utility of improved methods of poultry raising. The car serves at 

 the same time the purpose of a small travelling exhibition of Welsh 

 products and implements, and as school, with comparative tables 

 showing the results obtained by different methods and with diffe- 

 rent products. This new departure has met with great success. 



" Great efforts are made by the agricultural colleges in the 

 United States to attract and interest farmers in their work. One 

 method, which seems to be increasingly popular, is to bring in- 

 struction to the farmer's door by the use of a special train, from 

 which lectures are given at wayside stations. An instance of the 

 use of a train in this way was mentioned in the Journal of the 

 Board of Agriculture in July 1 909, and a similar, but somewat novel, 

 form of giving instruction has recently been tried in Indiana. 



The train was supplied without charge by the Erie Railway 

 Company for the agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue Uni- 

 versity, Lafayette, which provided the lecturers and exhibits. 



The train was composed of three coaches and a double side- 

 door horse and carriage car. Lectures of 45 minutes' duration 

 each were given at the stations where the train stopped. The lec- 

 tures were given in the coaches, which had been fitted up with 

 charts by the University; and the horse and carriage car contained 

 three cows for demonstration purposes. 



After a lecture of 30 minutes had been delivered, a 15 minute 

 demonstration was given in regard to the cows. When the people 

 had assembled on the platform, one of the doors of the car in 

 which the cows were kept was thrown open, and two Jerseys were 

 shown to the spectators. The general run of the demonstration 

 lecture was as follows: 



" Here you see two Jersey cows. Can anyone say off-hand 

 which is the better? The first cow cost about 10 (252 francs) 

 per annum to feed. She produced 11 10 s. (287 frcs) worth of 

 milk or 11 15 s. (293 frcs) worth of butter fat, so you had about 

 35 s. profit per annum for the pleasure of milking her twice a day. 

 The second cow, another Jersey, is a better producer, and gave 19 

 (479 frcs) worth of milk. This cow also costio (252 francs) per 



