136 
Report on Agricultural Education. 
mathematics are to a large extent replaced by the natural 
sciences and the principles of agriculture. 
Every province of the Prussian monarchy, with the single 
exception of that of Saxony (not the kingdom), now possesses at 
least one of these schools, and several have two. The number 
of agricultural students at these academies varies from 30 to 
upwards of 150. The schools are not exactly State Institutions, 
though they all receive a State subvention, which is contributed 
in the form of aid to the funds of the district, or to the associa- 
tion by which they have been organized. This subvention 
seems to vary considerably. Whilst at the important school of 
Hildesheim it only amounts to about 6/. per head on the total 
number of students, at Weil burg (including 372/. received from 
the local authorities) it appears that a subsidy of 40/. per student 
is enjoyed. It may be well here to enforce still further the 
remark which was made a few pages back as regards the special 
value of these intermediate schools to agriculturists, as entitling 
them to the important privilege of one year's voluntary service 
in the army. Until their establishment, agriculturists were 
compelled to send their sons to the higher schools for general 
education to obtain this right. As at these schools foreign 
languages or Greek and Latin formed the chief element of 
instruction, it is obvious that the establishment of agricultural 
schools of the same grade and with the same rights, together 
with the advantages of an education more suited to landowners 
and large farmers, gave them a considerable advantage over the 
former class of schools. Herr Matzat, the director of the school 
at Weilburg, to whom Mr. Jenkins is indebted for some useful 
information, remarks that the right to the one year's voluntary 
army service is the punctum saliens of high-class education in 
Germany. Without this right it might be thought sufficient for 
many youths if they received only an elementary education. 
It seems now that no high school flourishes if its final certificate 
does not carry this right, and M. IVIatzat therefore considers the 
establishment (since 1875) of these schools a most important 
advance in the system of agricultural education in Germany. 
The Landwirthscliaftsschulen are organised on a basis of a three 
years' course of instruction ; but it is allowed to have under the 
same management a preparatory school for those boys who 
intend to become students, but who are not yet qualified to 
enter the higher school. Only those students who intend to go 
through the whole course of study and to pass the final examina- 
tion are allowed to enter as pupils of the agricultural schools. 
No exception is made in favour of any student to excuse him 
from pursuing any of the subjects mentioned in the study plan. 
It is necessary to note that pupils of the preparatory school are 
