380 Agricultural Education in the Netherlands, [aug., 



ness which is characteristic of all the teaching at Wageningen 

 is shown by the fact that Dr. Ritzema Bos gives special 

 courses in these subjects to agricultural, horticultural, 

 forestry, and colonial students respectively, which means 

 giving four separate courses in these subjects. 



General Notes. — The total area of the Netherlands is 

 slightly over 8,000,000 acres, and the total population in 1907 

 was about 5,740,000. There are 336,000 acres under woods, 

 2,125,000 acres under crops, and 3,125,000 acres of meadow 

 and pasture land. The figures both of population and area 

 represent only about one-seventh those of Great Britain. 

 While, however, the rural population in Great Britain is 

 only 23 per cent, of the total, it is probable from figures 

 obtained in the Netherlands that the rural population in that 

 country is nearly 35 per cent, of the total. The wages of 

 farm labourers vary from 10s. to 12s. 6d. a week, and they 

 live, as a rule, in small villages, where they themselves pay 

 the rent of their houses. 



The farms are much smaller in the Netherlands than in 

 this country. There are only twenty-four holdings in all 

 which are over 450 acres in extent, and the great bulk of the 

 farms are under 150 acres in area. Nearly all the smaller 

 farmers are members of the village agricultural co-operative 

 societies, which receive every assistance possible from the 

 Directors of the Winter Schools and of the Analytical and 

 Seed Control Stations. The pupils who have gone through 

 the winter agricultural schools have been made thoroughly 

 conversant with the advantages of these co-operative socie- 

 ties, and know how to make use of the various agricultural 

 stations by getting advice as to the purchase and analysis 

 of manures and feeding-stuffs, the feeding of dairy cows, 

 &c, &c. The result is that the agricultural population of the 

 Netherlands receives far greater benefits from agricultural 

 education than that of this country. The development of 

 the winter agricultural schools in the Netherlands has con- 

 tributed to a large extent to this excellent result. 



As an example of what can be done by applying agri- 

 cultural science to the reclamation of land, it may be men- 

 tioned that over 105,000 acres of fen and peat land have been 

 reclaimed for agricultural purposes in the Province of 



