692 



Agricultural Schools in Germany. [feb., 



pies on which the various agricultural operations are based. 

 The instruction given presupposes a knowledge of the subjects 

 taught in the elementary and continuation schools, and this 

 has proved one of the great difficulties, as, in practice, the 

 winter school has to provide for young people of very varying 

 degrees of knowledge. If the pupils are assumed to have 

 received an elementary education only, and the instruction is 

 made suitable chiefly for the sons of peasant-farmers, small 

 holders, and cottagers, the sons of medium farmers, &c., are 

 left out, and no opportunity is afforded them, within reach of 

 home, of widening their practical knowledge. 



In practice it is found that the pupils come both from the 

 secondary and. from the village schools, while their ages vary 

 from fifteen to thirty, so that it is left for the teachers to adapt 

 their instruction to the needs of the pupils according to their 

 own judgment. The needs of the middle and lower ranks of 

 the agricultural population for technical instruction seem to be 

 largely met by these institutions, which have greatly developed 

 in the last twenty years. 



As their name implies, they are open only in the winter, 

 the pupils spending the summer months at home when they are 

 wanted to help in work on the farm, and it is thought that 

 this arrangement has had a great influence in developing 

 these schools. They thus acquire practical knowledge, and 

 the instruction given is theoretical only. The courses last, 

 from the beginning of November to the end of March, for 

 two winters. 



In the first winter's session instruction is given for fifty-four 

 hours weekly, of which nineteen are devoted to technical subjects, 

 eighteen to science^ and seventeen to general subjects ; in the 

 second session the technical subjects get twenty-five hours, 

 the allied sciences fifteen, and elementary subjects nine, though 

 the proportions may vary in different schools. 



The object of the winter school is then to provide an education 

 for the sons of small farmers and the rural population generally : 

 (i) it extends the knowledge obtained at school, (2) it provides 

 the basis of a knowledge of natural science, so far as concerns 

 agriculture, and (3) it teaches the principles of agriculture so 

 that the processes and oj.e rations of the farm may be understood 



