158 
Report on Agncultural Education. 
Denmark. 
Those who have studied Mr. Jenkins's Report on the Agricul- 
ture of Denmark, made for the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 
will be prepared to find that this small country, with something 
short of two million inhabitants, has by no means neglected 
the advancement of agricultural education, and indeed no less 
than 11,000/. are annually devoted to this object by the State. 
The first system which has to be noticed is that of asri- 
cultural apprenticeships, which exists in connection with the 
Royal Agricultural Society of Denmark, an institution entirely 
unlike our own national Society, insomuch as it is managed 
altogether by the State. Prof. Jorgensen, Principal of the 
Copenhagen College, thus states the objects of this system, if 
such it may be called. The apprentice who wishes to be placed 
on a farm must be at least 18 years of age, and must address 
to the Society a request written entirely with his own hand, and 
enclosing a certificate of good conduct, that he possesses the 
requisite elementary knowledge, that he is strong, has good 
health, and is accustomed to the ordinary manual labour of a 
farm. The Society then assigns him a place on a farm, and 
afterwards changes him to another, so that he may be able to 
acquire a knowledge of different systems of agriculture. The 
apprentices never remain more than one year on the same farm, 
and the}' are placed alternately on the islands and in Jutland. 
The Society provides each apprentice with a small collection of 
books treating of natural history, agriculture and stock manage- 
ment. The farmers where they are placed give them any 
necessary explanations on matters which they do not 'under- 
stand. At the end of their term the books become the property 
of the apprentices ; but if they do not serve their whole term, 
they are bound to return them to the Society. Each apprentice 
must keep a diary of what takes place on the farm, and write a 
report on it. This report is submitted to an examiner, and his 
opinion on it is published in the annual statement issued by 
the Society. 
This system has been highly successful ; the payment made to 
the apprentices by farmers is very small, only 4/. \Qs. to 6/. 
each, yearly ; but the great demand for their services has led 
the Society to be very careful that they are sent only to good 
men, and that in this way their agricultural education is cared 
for and improved. The certificate received by the apprentices 
at the end of their term of service being given directly, as it 
were, by the State, is highly prized, and often leads to the 
acquisition on the part of the holder of a situation as bailifT or 
dairyman (or dairywoman as the case may be), from which he 
has the opportunity of rising to a more responsible post. 
