16 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



he is to receive every advantage from the farmer in respect of informa- 

 tion on the farm, as well as from attendance at markets, sales, &c. &c., 

 as in the other case. After spending two years in this way he will have 

 become tolerably well acquainted with practical agriculture, and should 

 then enter an Agricultural College, where he should apply himself to 

 acquire such a knowledge of the sciences bearing on agriculture as we 

 find embraced in the course of study at such an institution as the Koyal 

 College of Cirencester, or as comprised under the new regulations 

 adopted by the authorities of the Edinburgh University. As the next 

 step in his training, he should endeavour to get employed in the office 

 of a good land-surveyor for at least one year, where he will have an 

 opportunity of practising measuring and valuing of land, surveying, 

 mapping, &c. &c. He should afterwards engage himself as assistant in 

 the office of some land-agent as factor, and on an estate where extensive 

 improvements are being carried out. There he will learn much, as at 

 this stage of his training and education he should be well able to reason 

 on all matters in connection with estate business, and to form correct 

 conclusions from what he may see going on around him, so that, by the 

 end of a year or so, he should be fit to undertake the responsibility of a 

 land-agency. In order that he may be in all respects thoroughly pre- 

 pared for this, he should, while acting in the capacity of assistant 

 to an agent, endeavour to gain a complete knowledge of book-keeping 

 in all its details, as applicable to estate purposes, and also to acquire 

 some acquaintance with law so far as it may have a bearing on landed 

 property. It is not possible, neither is it desirable, that he should 

 be a lawyer, but without some acquaintance with law an agent is apt 

 to commit mistakes in many points of his business, while a moderate 

 knowledge of it would enable him to steer clear of serious blunders. 

 Another branch which he should endeavour to gain some knowledge 

 of while in the office of an estate agent, is that of the management 

 of plantations. This he can easily obtain by paying attention to the 

 operations going on in the department of woods on the estate, and by 

 inquiries in regard to these at the forester and agent respectively, as 

 occasion or opportunity may occur, together with the study of works of 

 acknowledged repute bearing on the subject. In regard to the manage- 

 ment of woods, it is not understood, of course, that an agent should 

 have complete practical knowledge of it in all its details, as this 

 must in general cases be left to the judgment of the forester himself ; 

 still, it is absolutely necessary that an agent should have a fair know- 

 ledge as to how the department should in general be dealt with, in 

 order that he may be able to form a sound opinion and correct judg- 



