Education- 



236 



To two leading men is due the credit of raising the country to its present 

 happy condition of affluence, prosperity, and contentment. A pauper is now unknown 

 in the country. A scheme of village credit banks to advance money to small land 

 holders, to be returned in small weekly instalments, was designed and brought into 

 practical operation by Dr. Raiffeisen. Dr. Steinbeis visited the Great Exhibition in 

 London in 1851, and there the idea occurred to him of formulating a scheme of techni- 

 cal education for the rural population of his native country. His book " Elements of 

 Work Schools " formed the basis of a compulsory and universal teaching of agri- 

 culture. 



The first of the winter schools was compulsorily brought into operation in 

 1879, at which every pupil attended a course of general and agricultural education of 

 at least two evenings a week for six months. There are now 700 schools, with an 

 attendance of 16,000 pupils. There are over 100 voluntary evening schools, attended 

 by 2,000 pupils over 18 years old. The village schoolmaster is trained at suitable 

 centres in this course of teaching, and is assisted by itinerant specialists or experts 

 in the technical details of agriculture. Prom these elementary schools pupils who 

 desire to follow agricultural education further pass on to the Farm Schools or 

 Colleges. There are five of these schools with model farms attached ; a course 

 extends over three years. The pupils are sons of small land-owners, farmers, and 

 agricultural labourers. They receive board and instruction free of charge, giving 

 their labour on the land for this privilege. Prom these farm schools the student has 

 the opportunity of entering what is generally recognised as the best agricultural 

 college in Germany, and probably the most perfect institution of its kind in the 

 world, the Agricultural University ol Hohenheim, which has been established since 

 1818. It was promoted to the rank of a University in 1817. To it is attached a 

 College of Forestry, a model farm, technological institute, sugar factory, distillery, 

 brewery, vinegar factory, laboratory for testing garden and farm seeds, and a 

 department for proving agricultural machinery, a butter and cheese factory and 

 model dairy, poultry yards, live stock departments, fish-breeding ponds, and a 

 bacteriological institute. A splendid museum is attached, iu which is found a unique 

 collection of agricultural products and implements, soils, and minerals. 



The library contains 14,000 volumes, and an herbarium of some 30,000 plants. 

 The physical, chemical, botanical, and biological laboratories are models for teach- 

 ing purposes and equipment. All agricultural implements and machines are sub- 

 mitted to rigid examinations and tests in the presence of the farmers. New methods 

 of culture, manuring, new varieties of plants and seeds, are tested by a competent 

 and separate staff. This splendid system of complete agricultural education, Com- 

 bined with the establishment of the co-operative banks first started by Raiffeisen 

 in Stuttgart in 1880, have doubtless provided the requisite stimulus and knowledge 

 to effect such excellent results. There are over 700 of these co-operative banks in 

 Wurtemberg — the usurer has disappeared. The vote for agricultural education for 

 the province exceeds £80,000 per annum. A compulsory course of training in agri- 

 culture, gardening, and horticulture of two hours weekly is found in all the primary 

 schools of the German Rhine Province during the final two years of the school 

 curriculum. The teacher is given a free hand in determining the character and 

 scope of the training in which the agricultural needs of the district are to be con- 

 sidered. The success of the tuition, it is fully recognised, largely depends on the 

 theoretical and practical knowledge possessed by the teacher, his enthusiasm, and 

 ability to teach. 



France. 



In France the Organic Law of 1850 placed " Elementary instruction in 

 agriculture " as an optional subject for teaching in the curriculum. An agitation 

 commenced in 1860 to make the teachiug of agriculture in the primary schools obli- 



