206 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
Work nar in with all this is the systen of depart- 
mental professors, one for each of the 89 depart- 
ments and established in 1880. The professors are 
selected by public competition ; they are a kind of 
ambulatory organizing teachers or practical instructors ; 
they reside near the departmental Training Schools 
for the national teachers and there deliver lectures ; 
they hold two conferences for the benefit of farmers 
at fixed places in their districts; visit holdings, look 
up the agricultural lessons given in the national 
school, keep themselves in a word in touch with 
their agricultural community ; but above all to remain 
well-pasted up in all scientific and practical operations 
in the firming industries special to their looality. 
The departement pays the professor's travelling ex- 
penses and the State his salary. 
There now remains the Begional Colleges still im- 
perfectly organized, or rather insufficiently represented 
considering the several different zones of culture special 
to France. The Grignon College started in 1830 
with a oapital of 300,000 fr. aimed at high farming 
or intensive culture. It has an educational staff of 
32 persons ; it studies cereals, industrial plants, for- 
rages, the improvement in the breeds of animals and 
all that relates to the agriculture of northern France. 
Qrand-Jouan College has for speciality the reclam- 
ation of land, mixed culture of pasture and tillage, 
the metayage system of owner and farmer sharing 
profits, and field fruit raising. Montpellier College is 
situated in the region of the Mediterranean and takes 
cognizance of sheep grazing or runs ; the replant- 
ing of forests or treeing of districts, the reclamation 
of waste lands, and all that relates to the culture of 
the vine, the orange, olive and mulberry. 
There is no type-college of this olass for the vast 
district of the south-west of France and its claret 
vineyards ; it will be necessary also to resuscitate the 
Begional College of Saint-Angean in the interests of 
pasturages and dairy industries. 
In addition to all this agricultural educational 
machinery proper, France has a school for shepherds 
and sheep management at Eambouillet; one for 
dairy stock at Oorbon. I say nothing of the studs 
for stallions and mares nor the Horticultural School 
of Veisailles and its staff of 17 professors, nor of 
the local chambers of agriculture to keep the Gov- 
ernment couched on all administrative or legislative 
needs of the farmer, nor of the 39 agronomic 
stations, nor of the local farming societies, nor the 
regional agricultural shows organized by the Government. 
The Miuister of Agriculture's Budget is 24 million 
francs; all the data is the latest that for 1886. 
The details are not clearly set forth, but roughly 
speaking about 2$ millions of the total sum are de- 
voted to agricultural education proper. There are 
four inspectors for the scholastio supervision. 
In this survey of French agricultural education, 
some facts very prominently crop out. First, the sow- 
ing of the seed for a taste for the profession of 
agriculture, by making instruction in its elements 
•ompulsory in the ordinary national schools; second, 
in the case of the practical schools, leaving the actual 
farming expenses at the risks of the director, and 
so placing him ex equo in the matter of profit and 
loss with the surrounding farmers he invites to mo lei 
after him; third, coping the two degrees of study 
by the highest system of education in scientific special- 
Hie* and theoretic experiments ; fourth, keeping up 
by the regional colleges efficient type-centres of pract- 
ical progress ; fifth, binding these efforts by de- 
partemental professors ; and sixth, the Government 
whilo leaving tho management to local self-govern- 
ment keeps in its hands all the threads for impart- 
ing unity of effort, community of ideas, and single- 
ness of aim to the collective organization. 
The most imp irtant of current t ipics is the general 
harvest. The season has been exceptionally dry and 
has naturally told on vegetation. The hay of course 
ha* been well-saved, but the yield is very light. 
Boot crops are a souvenir, and the aim now is to 
■ow everything in the way of a help to early winter 
and spring feeding. Wheat will ba of good quality 
and the yield somewhat superior to last year. Oats 
and barley lea™ much to be desired and the latter 
wants oolor. Bye has not filled well ; indeed in the 
case of all cereals the ears in this respect have but 
too much in common. The vintage will be excellent 
and the quality being irreproachable, higher prices 
will be obtained. However, the dominant thought 
of the moment is how to provide for stock during 
the coming winter. Straw cut up and mixed with 
everything digestible, cake, seeds, meals, &e. and the 
mess steamed or macerated is the only solution. 
» 
PLANTING IN DELI. 
(Translated for the " Straits Timet") 
According to the Deli (Jourant of the 3rd 
August, the pepper crop in Acheen promises to 
be heavier than ever. One consequence is that 
the Bajah of Edi, who deals considerably in pepper 
and can afford to spend money freely, now that a 
bumper yield of that article is in prospect, has 
laid out no less than sixty thousand dollars at 
Penang to the great joy of purveyors and contractors 
there. 
The Deli Oowant of the 13th August asserts on 
good authority that the tobacco crop in that colony 
this year will not be a large one by any means. 
There is every prospect of the yield proving very 
moderate in quantity. It appears that this un- 
toward result is ascribed to the months of June 
and July being too dry for the young tobacco 
plants. From want of Chinese coolies on many 
estates, planting operations could not be set about 
until late in the season, so that the young tobacco 
suffered greatly from drought. Matters are not 
much better on upcountry estates. Generally speak- 
ing an outturn of 6 or 7 piculs per unit of area 
will be looked upon as satisfactory this year. No- 
thing definite can yet be stated as to quality. In 
the coast districts the situation is as bad as in 
the upland ones. There, too, the planters had to 
oope with a severe drought. Rumour says that 
many of them find ruin imminent. 
The Deli Courant holds that the reason why 
ill success has alway attended the endeavours 
made to bring about coolie emigration from India 
to that oolony lies in the ignorance of how mat- 
ters really stand there in Government circles at 
Calcutta That journal urges the despatch of a 
commission of experts to India. The Planters' 
Associationreoommended this course to the Governor^ 
General as far back as 1884. His Exc llenoy 
promised to do everything in his power to carry 
out their wishes. The Governor-General who 
happened to be then in Deli soon left for Java. 
Three years have since passed away, but nothing 
whatever has been done to further Tamil emigra- 
tion from India to Deli. The Netherlands India 
Government seem now inclined to take the matter 
up once more. But success can only be seoured 
by fully enlightening the Indian Government how 
matters stand economically in Deli, and as to the 
securities for the due adm nistration of justice to 
its subjects there. In that respect the situation 
has vastly improved since 1884. When once the 
crass ignorance as to Deli affairs has been removed, 
it needs only tact and sound judgment to negoci- 
ate a ooolie convention. 
At the prompting of the Government in Holland, 
the Netherlands India authorities have once more 
taken up the subject of cooly emigration from 
British India to the East Coast of Sumatra, a 
matter of the highest importance to Deli. It has 
been repeatedly brought under the notice of the 
Dutch Government by the planters concerned. The 
question has been under discussion for the last 
ten years. But, in spite of petitions, conferences, 
and correspondence, it is no nearer a solution than 
