| sity of Edinburgh was founded in 1790, by Sir 
| William Pulteney. The first professor, Dr. Cov- 
| entry, occupied the chair from 1791 till his death 
_ in 1831. 
_ of 70 pupils; his subsequent classes consisted of 
_ 30 or 40 pupils; and his later classes diminished | 
| almost to extinction, and were held only on al- 
| joyed important aid from the Board of Trustees. 
| for the encouragement of arts and manufactures 
_ in Scotland ; formed a valuable museum of models, 
| portraits, and. other articles, for illustrating his 
| lectures; and made an important contribution to 
_ of his ‘ Practical Elements of Agriculture.’—A 
| college are admitted gratis to the lectures on 
86 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
avocations which have little or no connexion with 
agriculture. The total number of pupils in the 
institution from its commencement till August 
1841 was 418; and out of these, as well as of any 
others who left it previous to September 1843, 
so many as 93 emigrated to the colonies, 13 be- 
came shopkeepers, 11 became clerks, some became 
schoolmasters or land-surveyors, and only a little 
more than two-thirds of the whole devoted them- 
selves to domestic farming,—36 as farm-stewards, 
and the remainder as farmers or farm-servants. 
Yet the Templemoyle institution has evidently 
achieved great good ; and last year it experienced 
a considerable increase to its prosperity, and was 
about to receive an accession to its buildings— 
Several other schools in Ireland partake of an 
agricultural character, and one or two have com- 
menced with considerable pretensions; but they 
are either practical failures, or of meagre charac- 
ter and influence. 
The professorship of agriculture in the Univer- 
His early classes consisted of upwards 
ternate years. Mr. Low, the next professor, en- 
agricultural literature in 1834 by the publication 
lectureship of agriculture was a year or two ago | 
appointed in Marischal college, Aberdeen; but ' 
the appointment was understood to be a mere 
experiment, and was made for only three years, 
and upon an annual salary of only £40.—An en- 
dowment is said to exist for a professorship of 
agriculture in one of the colleges of Oxford —The 
Veterinary college of London was founded in 
1791, and is supported by yearly subscriptions, 
and occasional parliamentary grants. The busi- 
ness of the college, till quite recently, was devoted 
chiefly to the diseases of the horse; but, in vir- 
tue of a grant of £300 a-year from the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, it now comprises 
attention to the diseases of the other animals 
reared or kept on farms.—The Veterinary college 
of Edinburgh originated in the personal enter- 
prise of its first and talented professor, Mr. Wil- 
ham Dick. From 1818 to 1823, that gentleman 
laboured gratuitously for the diffusion of veter- 
inary science; in 1823, he obtained formal sanc- 
tion and a small salary from the Highland and 
Agricultural Society of Scotland ; and during 
subsequent years he raised the college to so great 
an elevation as to be annually attended by from 
70 to 100 pupils. Students at the Veterinary 
AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
human anatomy and physiology in Queen’s col- 
lege; and, after attending both colleges, or at 
least the former, during two or more years, they 
are examinable for a diploma in veterinary sur- 
gery. 
AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. The seeds of crops 
grown on farms. Though, as usually understood, 
these seeds are strictly such as are used in farm- 
culture, and are exclusive of all seeds of trees, 
shrubs, garden-plants, medical plants, and weeds, 
yet they are far too numerous to be here defined 
or even enumerated. The number of botanical 
species grown upon a farm, indeed, is not very 
considerable ; but the number of varieties of some 
of these species—particularly of the grains and 
the leguminous plants—is almost incredible. An 
excellent manual of all the best and most curious 
varieties of nearly all the species—containing not 
merely an enumeration, but definitions, histori- 
cal notices, and practical hints—is Mr. Charles 
Lawson’s ‘ Agriculturist’s Manual, or Familiar 
Description of the agricultural plants cultivated 
in Europe, especially those suited to the climate - 
of Great Britain, forming a report of Lawson’s 
agricultural museum in Edinburgh. 
An astounding fact on the foreground of all 
inquiries respecting the seeds sown by farmers, 
is that an enormous proportion of them is de- 
stroyed or never germinates. This proportion 
has been computed to amount to two-thirds of 
the entire quantity sown; and therefore to in- 
volve the stupendous annual waste, throughout 
Great Britain and Ireland, of 4,666,666 quarters 
of wheat, barley, and oats,—a quantity equal to 
the support of one million of human beings. The 
calculation which brings out so appalling a result 
assumes, that the average quantity of wheat sown 
on an imperial acre is 3 bushels or 2,685,912 grains, 
of barley 5 bushels or 3,135,360 grains, and of oats 
6 bushels or from 4,241,664 to 4,484,912 grains,— 
that the greatest produce in the best districts is 
17 times the quantity of wheat sown, and 12 times 
the quantity of barley and oats,—that the aver- 
age produce of these three grains on the average 
quality of soil is only seven times the quan- 
tity of the seed sown,—that the average number 
of grains in an ear of good wheat is 44, in an ear 
of barley 28, and in an ear of oats about 64,— 
that the average tillering of vital seeds produces 
three stems per seed of wheat and barley, and 
two stems per seed of oats,—and that, as an in- 
ference from these two last assumptions, the pro- 
duce of wheat ought to be 44 times according to 
the grains and 132 times according to the tiller- 
ing, of barley 28 times according to the grains 
and 24 times according to the tillering, and of 
oats 64 times according to the grains and 128 
times according to the tillering. It is stated by 
Mr. Millot, that in 1830 the medium return of. 
wheat for the seed sown, taking the average of 
all France, was about 5 1-5 times. 
The mean produce was 12 hectolitres per hec- 
tare. 
