farmers' institute and EXTENSION WORK, 1913. 17 



turn was responsible for the preparation and serving of a dinner. The theoretical 

 instruction included the nutritive value of different foods, dietetics, food preserva-' 

 tion, tests of fitness or unfitness of food for home consumption, domestic economy ,- 

 cost of meals per head, care of the home, and rules of health. The pupils also received 

 instruction in hygiene, chemistry, physics, bookkeeping, care of farm stock, dairying, 

 sociology, singing, and gymnastics. The tuition fee for the summer course is $8.75. 



The Swedish system of education also provides for instruction in veterinary science, 

 farriery, horticulture, forestry, the peat industry, fisheries, and economics; besides 

 which there are itinerant agricultural schools and specially arranged schools for small 

 holders. Another very interesting kind of educational work is now being developed, 

 namely, instruction in the methods of canning fruits, preparation of dried fruits, jam 

 making, preparation of preserves, etc., by means of traveling vans fitted up with the" 

 necessary apparatus. 



Italy. — The expenses of the itinerant chairs of agriculture have been classed 

 heretofore as "optional expenses," and therefore subject to cancellation by the 

 provincial administrative assemblies for the communities when exceeding the limits 

 of overtaxation. The statute of June 12, 1912, modifies this requirement as follows: 

 "The Province and its communities which exceed the limit of overtaxation possess 

 the authority to approve or register the optional expense balances with the same 

 provisions by which excesses are authorized, always when such expenses are evidently 

 necessary for health, instruction, beneficence, agriculture, and the conservation of 

 itinerant chairs of agriculture." 



France. — The law of August 21, 1912, relating to departmental and communal 

 agricultural instruction provides a director of agricultural services in each Department 

 in place of the departmental chairs of agriculture established by the law of June, 1879. 

 The work of this director includes: The popularization of agricultural knowledge; the 

 teaching of agriculture; in the establishment of public instruction selected by minis- 

 terial decree; the service of the economic and social interests of agriculture and of 

 agricultural insurance and rural hygiene; agricultural information, statistics, and food 

 supply; the direction of experimental fields; researches or technical missions, and in 

 general, all the services to do with agriculture. The veterinary and forestry services 

 and the direction of agricultural stations are not included in these duties. 



The departmental professor of agriculture shall hereafter be entitled "director of 

 the agricultural services." He is assisted by one or several agricultural lecturers, 

 who hold special positions, whose sphere of work is variable and comprehends all or 

 part of one or several "arrondissements." These spheres may be extended still 

 further in the case of specialists. By resolution of the chamber, a credit of $182,000 

 was incorporated in the budget for 1912, and of this $160,000 is to provide salaries for 

 these State functionaries and $22,000 is for other expenses which the Department or 

 communes have to meet. 



The range of duties of the Department professors has remarkably increased. At 

 present their duties may be divided into two groups: They are on one hand a kind of 

 information bureau where farmers may seek advice in all matters, and on the other 

 they serve as agents of the central administration for conducting investigations of the 

 most varied nature. Under this latter head they must make a monthly report upon 

 the general condition of agriculture in their special territory, and further upon tillage 

 areas and growing and ripened crops, and finally conduct special investigations. 



The appointment of professors of agriculture has as a prerequisite the passing of a 

 competitive examination under the Ministry of Agriculture, upon which the bill 

 contains some provisions. The candidate must be 25 years of age, be a graduate of 

 the agricultural college (Institute National Agronomique) or of one of the agricultural 

 national schools with two and one-half years' curriculum and an uninterrupted two 

 years' experience in agricultural administration after graduation. The appointment 

 31542°— 14 3 



