62 BOTANY 



val, and to meet this deficiency a law was passed in 

 1875 organizing experimental agricultural schools to 

 assist in the training of farmers' sons and daughters. 

 Traveling schools also went from district to district, giving 

 similar instruction in short courses. 



In 1879 a law was passed providing for professors and 

 administrators of agriculture to visit the various dis- 

 tricts, and from that time they have played an important 

 role in organizing short courses, conferences, agricult- 

 ural societies, mutual insurance societies, farmers' 

 mutual loan companies, and organizations promoting 

 cooperation in buying, selling and producing. Also 

 demonstration fields and experiment stations, together 

 with a variety of experimental research laboratories, 

 were established in various parts of the country. 



The progress of agricultural education has been aided 

 largely through the efforts of agricultural societies. The 

 Societe Nationale d' Agriculture, founded in 1761, is 

 foremost among these societies, and is now very properly 

 properly called the Academic d'Agriculture. Its annals 

 for a century and a half have contained the names of 

 eminent scientists, who have contributed to the develop- 

 ment of agriculture through chemistry, physics, botany, 

 and zoology. It is still of great assistance in bringing 

 the results of science to the solution of soil problems. 



Several other large societies are grouped about the 

 Academic d'Agriculture, ranging from La Societe des 

 Agriculteurs de France, the oldest of the societies, with 

 9000 members scattered throughout the country, to the 

 recently founded Societ6 Nationale d'Encouragement 

 a 1' Agriculture. La Societe Nationale d'Horticulture de 

 France for 25 years has been prominent in caring for 

 the horticultural interests, while vine growers are rep- 

 resented by La Societe* des Viticulteurs de France. About 

 these large organizations are grouped very numerous 



