146 Report on Agricultural Education. 
portion of their vacations in studying practical agriculture on 
farms, nor only so, but that they have to bring back with them a 
report on the farms visited, and on all the operations which 
have taken place during their stay. 
The programme of the course of studies is far too lengthy to 
insert here, but it shows that a thoroughly scientific character is 
given to the teaching. Moreover, it is no mere paper pro- 
gramme, as is too much the case with the German agricultural 
institutes, but is actually compulsory on the students. Some 
idea of the discipline may be obtained when it is mentioned 
that every student is obliged to sign his name in the book on 
entering, which must be between 8 and 8.25 A.M., and again on 
returning from dejeuner before 11.25 A.M. There are, more- 
over, roll-calls at unannounced hours during the day, and 
absence is not tolerated except on account of illness, which must 
be proved by medical certificate. 
The cost of this Institute is necessarily very large. Students 
only pay 12Z. per annum for instruction — of course they find 
their own board, books, and other requirements. At the com- 
mencement of the session 1881-82, there were eighty-eight 
ordinary students, besides seven who were continuing their 
studies a third year. In the same year the State grant to the 
Institut was no less than 10,778Z., and, leaving out of account 
the fees paid by students, the education of the ninety-five pupils 
in question entails a cost to the State of fully 100 guineas per 
head per annum. Every year the students who stand at the head 
of those who have passed their final examination for the diploma, 
may receive at the cost of the State a travelling scholarship either 
in France or foreign countries. This scholarship is tenable for 
three years, and reports on the subject of his inquiries must be 
forwarded periodically by each scholar to the Director of the 
Institut. A thousand pounds a year is thus spent in an 
admirable manner. 
Grignon. — If the Institut Agronomique is unique among scien- 
tific educational establishments, it is owing to the fact of the 
failure of South Kensington to supply its equivalent in London. 
Tbe Normal School of Science might, indeed, provide the 
higher class of agricultural education if it were fully equipped 
in the same manner as the Paris Institut, but however these 
two institutions may stand in comparison with one another, the 
next school mentioned, namely, that of Grignon, may fairly be 
described as the Cirencester of France. 
Grignon was established in 1827 under the following circum- 
stances. The estate, consisting of about 1160 acres, was let to a 
company by the French Government for a period of forty years, 
and the school was maintained by the company entirely until 
