Report on Agricultural Education. 157 
Rewards are given to the teachers in these schools by the 
" Societe des Agriculteurs de France" in the shape of gold, 
silver, and bronze medals. 
" This department of the French system of agricultural edu- 
cation is especially interesting, because it is (1) the only example 
which I shall be able to indicate of an attempt in foreign coun- 
tries to give technical instruction in matters pertaining to the 
cultivation of the soil to the lowest stratum of those who depend 
upon that industry for their livelihood ; and (2) because its 
essential element differs completely from that which has been 
laid down by our Education Department in the Minute of 1883. 
The basis of the French system is facts, whereas our new depar- 
ture is built on principles. In one respect the two attempts at 
primary agricultural instruction have a common ground-work, 
that both are encouraged by the offer of rewards to the teachers 
instead of to the pupils. 
" It seems to me that the true principle of granting rewards 
for efficiency is to give them directly to the pupils, not only 
immediately by means of prizes, but also prospectively through 
the agencies of scholarships or buisaries, certificates of effi- 
ciency, and any other means that may be devised to improve 
the future of the successful pupils. Payment by results to the 
teachers as a means of encouragement to technical instruction, 
when the only test is a written examination, is only too 
likely to end in the acquisition by the pupil of a knowledge of 
a technical jargon, without any idea of its practical meaning or 
utility." 
It must be confessed that in this matter of early teaching of 
agriculture, at least, our neighbours are distinctly before us. An 
earnest attempt is being made to bring home to the minds of the 
youngest of country children some knowledge of rural affairs ; 
and if the somewhat ambitious programme issued by the 
" Cornice Agricole " of the Rouen district, and quoted by Mr. 
Jenkins in his Appendix (pp. 356 and 359), is not fully carried 
out, we can scarcely doubt that in the hands of persevering 
teachers much useful knowledge is being imparted, which will 
surely bear its fruit in the future. 
The Statio7is Agronomiques, or Government laboratories, as it 
would be better to call them, differ so little in their objects and 
uses from those already alluded to in Germany, that it is 
unnecessary to do more than refer to their cost to the State. 
There are twenty-three such stations in France, and the Govern- 
ment grant shows that about 150/. per annum is advanced to 
each of them by the Agricultural Department. 
