yeibeesis so as 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
the pupil can look into collateral topics, such as 
materia medica, or avail himself of directly pro- 
fessional aids, such as the regular lectures on 
agriculture in the universities of Edinburgh and 
Aberdeen, the more fully and effectively will he 
work out the grand designs of all his educational 
training. See A@ricuLTURAL ScHooxs. 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. See Farm 
SERVANTS. 
AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. The ag- 
gregate of published writings on the subject of 
agriculture. The amount of this is enormous. 
But one great portion of it is obsolete; another 
great portion is vapid, unreflecting, worrying re- 
petition of what everybody knows; and a third 
great portion is mere theory and speculation,— 
either the monomania of practical improvers, or 
the wild day-dream of utopian philosophers. Yet 
it comprises numerous works of high value, and 
several series of periodicals of not a little excel- 
_ lence; and though it can boast but few and brief 
specimens of beauty or eloquence, it possesses a 
fair share of the far more valuable properties of 
_ sound learning and useful tendency. A view of 
its ancient and progressive condition is included 
in the historical section of our General Introduc- 
tion; and a vidimus of its best works on all the 
subjects most interesting to the farmer, is afforded 
by our lists of authorities at the end of all our 
principal articles. 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. Institutions 
for training young men in both the art and the 
science of agriculture. In the degree in which 
_ any of them are so constituted and conducted as 
to make their pupils at once thorough practical 
farmers and complete or even tolerable scientific 
agriculturists, they serve precisely the great pur- 
poses which we have desiderated and recom- 
mended on the subject of Aaricunruran Epuca- 
tion. But some of them are too superficial, others 
are not sufficiently practical, and most or all are 
too stiff, too formal, too academical, too little 
possessed of the actual, business, every-day charac- 
ter of both the working and the thinking of real 
agriculture; and hence some are more likely to 
produce pedants and pretenders than true scien- 
tific farmers,—and the best seem adapted rather 
to educate gentlemen’s sons for practising an in- 
telligent supervision of their estates, than to train 
young men of the middle classes of society for an 
effective performance of the thousand hard duties 
of practical farming. Yet several of them possess 
great excellencies; and all the principal ones de- 
serve to be made as fully known as possible, both 
for their own sakes, and that they may stimulate 
and direct the founding of better institutions. 
The institute of agriculture and forestry, at 
Hohenheim, near Stuttgard, was founded by the 
celebrated Schwartz, and placed on its present 
basis in 1817 by the King of Wurtemberg, and 
extends its influence over the whole of that state, 
and into parts of the adjoining countries. It was 
acre by the king with a royal seat and ex- 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 81 
tensive buildings; it has attached to its school- 
rooms and lodging-houses, farming and other 
grounds to the extent of 960 acres; and it pos- 
sesses, for the use of pupils, a museum, a library, 
a small laboratory, a collection of apparatus, a 
cider-press, a vinegar-manufactory, a beet-sugar 
manufactory, a brewery, a distillery, and various 
other appliances. Its grounds are divided into 
about 501 acres of arable land, 242 acres of mea- 
dow land, 13 acres of woodland, 67 acres of nur- 
sery ground, 2 acres of hop plantation, 14 acres 
of botanical garden, 1 acre of kitchen and flower 
garden, 33 acres of experimental ground, and 85 
acres of reserve ground. The institution is di- | 
vided into two departments,—the lower, devoted 
chiefly to practical training,—and the higher, 
intended principally for scientific instruction. In 
the lower school, natives of Wurtemberg, who 
cannot pay, are admitted gratis; in the higher 
school, all pupils are expected to pay; and to 
either school, but on a higher scale, foreign- 
ers may be admitted. Pupils are not admissible 
till the age of seventeen; and are expected to 
have previously acquired all elementary attain- 
ments. The number of pupils in the lower school 
is limited to 27; that in the higher school in 1836 
was 72; and the total number in both depart- 
ments from 1829 to 1836 was 539. The pupils in 
the lower school usually engage to remain three 
years ; they take part in all the operations of the 
farm, the garden, and the other scenes of labour ; 
they receive some instructions during the inter- 
vals of labour, and attend some of the lectures 
delivered to the pupils of the higher school; and 
they generally receive wages for their work, and 
make payments out of these for their maintenance | 
and clothing. The pupils of the higher school, 
if previously well trained, attend only one year, 
but, in general, they attend during two years; 
those enrolled for the school of forestry also at- 
tend during two years; so that all who enjoy a 
full course attend during four years or eight ses- 
sions,—each year consisting of two long sessions 
and two short vacations,—the sessions extending 
from the first of November to Palm Sunday, and 
from two weeks after Palm Sunday to the first of 
October. The topics of instruction during the 
first year are the general principles of farming 
and gardening, the culture of the vine, the breed- 
ing of cattle, the growing of wool, the training 
of horses, the rearing of silk-worms, the arrang- 
ing and directing of farms, the valuing of farms, 
and book-keeping; during the second year, the 
general principles of forestry, the botany of forests, 
the culture and superintendence of forests, the 
uses of forests, the technology of forests, and 
the laws and taxation affecting forests; during 
the third year, veterinary surgery, agricultural 
technology, the manufacture of beet-sugar, brew- 
ing, distiling, vinegar-making, zoology, materia 
medica, chemistry, meteorology, and vegetable 
physiology ; and during the fourth year, theoreti- 
cal and practical mathematics, or geometry, trig- 
