resulted in very little more than a mere name; yet I am of the opinion that the science and art of agriculture will best be raised to their true dignity by securing the proper instruction in connection with our universities. If universities, already established, will not give this subject a place proportionate to its importance, the act making the government grant of land for agricultural and mechanical education is so framed as to give us a most fortunate advantage in founding new institutions.

All that has been gained, thus far, on the side of practical education in the contest between the advocates of the old classical system and the advocates of the real studies, or the study of Nature, has been gained in connection with our colleges and universities. It is not long since any young man who wished to attain a standing as a scholar had but one course open to him. The study of Greek and Latin was forced upon him, no matter what his inclinations, tastes, or aptitudes might be. This rule, which required all to reach knowledge by the same road, has been measurably overthrown in our country. The study of the natural sciences, of Nature and her works, and of the laws that govern the physical universe, is raised to equal dignity with the study of what is styled a classical course. I would not disparage the study of Greek and Latin, but would greatly increase the amount of study now required. Greek and Latin literature opens to the human intellect the grandest fields of its own activities and resources; but, with the whole circle of human knowledge before us, we should give freedom of choice, and, to this end, insist upon more thorough preparation before any of the special courses be entered upon, during which time all should be educated alike; but when the choice can be made under the guidance of capacity or apti tude, the university course should be such as will accommodate all.

If the farmer or mechanic must go to an institution apart from students fitting themselves for other callings, his education will always be looked upon as a sort of half education, or at least as being of an inferior grade. Give these students a position of honor equal to any others, and, for an equal amount of good study in any chosen course, award the same credit. Contact of mind with mind plays a decided part in educa tion. The contact of students of all callings creates new power, and spurs forward to higher ambitions. This influence or atmosphere of study is measurably lost by separate schools. Then, by associating the literary, and scientific, and the practical students, there is less danger of a social stamp being put upon the one differing from that put upon another. This is of great importance. In the university, too, any student may consult his taste or interest by acquiring a knowledge of studies allied to his chosen course, although not strictly belonging to it.

Economy is greatly on the side of the university plan. The machinery required is to a great extent the same for all the courses, and to multiply it, so as to supply as many separate schools as there are natural subdivisions in the university, would be a great waste of capital. I do not mean to argue that we may not at some time need special schools; but this is not our first great want.

In Prussia, where agricultural education has long been an established part of the school system, there are a number of old and well-established separate agricultural academies and schools. The university at Halle established an agricultural department in 1863, which now has one hundred and eighty students-more than double the number in attendance at any other agricultural school or academy in Prussia. 1 believe it will be found that where agricultural studies have proper care bestowed upon them in the universities, the latter will take the lead in this department.

It is an almost unavoidable result in cases of schools for any given purpose, that the studies are attempted to be rendered easy, with the view of adapting them to the special course. This is an injury to the student, and justly merits the position usually assigned such schools as being of a low grade. I find, both in England and on the continent, that those whose judgment is entitled to the greatest weight are inclining toward the opinion that agricultural education, so far as the schools are concerned, should be collegiate in character; or scientific. The same is true in regard to education in mechanics. The notion that the student should go to these schools to learn agriculture or any of the mechanical arts, very much as he would learn a trade, is rightfully discarded.

In the grand duchy of Baden I found the Ministerium of Trade and Agriculture engaged in the inauguration of a system of agricultural education which must succeed in extending the knowledge of the acad emies to the agricultural community. This system requires the establishment of a school in each district (eleven in the grand duchy) for the sons of farmers, (the peasantry,) the principal of each school to be paid by the government, and required to be not only an educated man, but educated in the science of agriculture. These schools are to consist of one term in the year (a winter term) of five months. The remainder of the year the principal teachers are to travel and study all the best practices of agriculture to be found in the country, occasionally lecturing in the villages to interest the farmers in the subject of the schools, that they may send their sons in the winter. This system not only extends to the people a knowledge of all that can be discovered in the academies and colleges, and by the best practice of the more intelligent and enterprising farmers, but it opens employment for thorough students of agriculture who go from the colleges from year to year.

There are only two institutions in Great Britain where agriculture is at present successfully taught-one in England and one in Scotland. L The former is the Royal Agricultural College, at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, which is devoted exclusively to agriculture; the latter is an agricultural department in the University of Edinburgh.

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AT CIRENCESTER.

The Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester had for a long time but a feeble existence. The reasons were:

First. Want of capital, having no government aid, and charging its students at a non-paying rate.

Second. It was supporting a very heavy burden in the way of a model farm, which ran the institution in debt to the extent of about $50,000.

Third. It required the students to labor, and thereby secured satisfactory results neither in study nor in labor. All these difficulties have been overcome. The first, by increasing the charges for board and tuition, which of course changed the class of students; the second and third, by the abandonment of the practices out of which they grew. The insti tution is now self sustaining and prosperous, and in September last, soon after the opening of the term, there were about seventy students in attendance. The increase of the expense of board and tuition excludes the sons of small farmers, who were at first intended to be educated at this institution, and the more wealthy classes now send their sons. there were no question of expense, it would be impossible to mingle the two classes in the same institution in this country-a difficulty which, it If is to be hoped, may never be encountered in America.

The Duke of Marlborough is president of the college, and its present faculty embraces the Rev. John Constable, principal, and six resident professors, occupying the chairs of agriculture, chemistry, natural his tory, anatomy, physiology and hygiene, mathematics and surveying, and drawing.

The institution was incorporated by charter, March 27, 1845. The college building is a handsome and commodious gothic structure, of stone, situated one and a half miles out of Cirencester. Its frontage is one hundred and ninety feet. The buildings include a chapel, dininghall, library, museum, lecture-theater, laboratories, class-rooms, private studies, and servants' offices; with apartments for resident professors, and ranges of dormitories on the upper floors. The whole building is lighted with gas, and the best methods of warming and ventilation have been adopted. Each student has a separate sleeping apartment, and private studies are allotted to meritorious students.

The managers appear to appreciate the great educational value of a practical, industrial, and scientific museum; the college museum, possessing a valuable collection of geological specimens, minerals, and objects of natural history; an interesting set of anatomical and pathological preparations, such as casts of teeth, to illustrate the age of the horse, sheep, and other animals; an extensive museum of economic botany, containing specimen plants of many varieties of known cereals, samples of seeds of every species of plants used by the agriculturist, and a series of wax models of every variety of cultivated roots; and also a beautiful herbarium, containing about three thousand specimens of British plants.

Thirty acres of land are devoted to the purposes of an experimental farm, which is so managed that, by accurate records and the systematic weighing of animals and products, students are enabled to secure correct ideas of many of the important details of farm practice. The farm formerly conducted by the college as a model farm is now under the management of one of the graduates of the institution, to whom it is let with the reserved right of students and professors to visit it at will. This farm consists of about five hundred acres. The soil of the farms rests on the forest marble and great oolite. Much of it, therefore, is brash. The general elevation above the sea is about six hundred feet. Instruction in agriculture is given by lectures and by daily practical exercises on the farms. The agricultural course of instruction thus embraces not only a scientific discussion of established methods of cultivating different kinds of soils in different climates; of the breeding, rearing, and general management of stock, and the use of machinery; but also affords a good illustration of the cultivation of at least one good farm in the neighborhood, to which, by an arrangement made with the tenant, the students have free access. Each student is expected to keep a daily journal of all the operations on the farm, and to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the accounts. Natural and mechanical philosophy are taught by a series of lectures delivered by the principal. The chemical laboratory is well arranged and well furnished, and chemical manipulation and analysis are taught to each class of students in succession, under the superintendence of the professor of chemistry and his assistants. After studying the properties of the more commonly occurring substances, they are taught to analyze a series of compounds proceeding from simple to more complex cases, and to apply the knowledge thus obtained to the analysis of inanures, soils, ashes of plants, farm products, and other substances with which the practical agriculturist is more immediately concerned; and, in addition, there is a systematic

course of illustrated lectures given on inorganic, organic, and agricultural chemistry, as well as catechetical lectures. Analyses of artificial manures, oil cakes, waters, &c., are daily performed in the college laboratory, and chemico-agricultural researches undertaken by the more advanced students, under the immediate direction of Mr. Church and assistants.

Geology is taught by lectures, and practically illustrated in field excursions and geological surveys in the surrounding neighborhood.

The professor of botany delivers annually a full course of lectures in systematic botany, illustrated by a botanical garden belonging to the institution, which enables him to instruct practically in the botany of agriculture, and to show the students various experiments in vegetable physiology. The professor of botany conducts field classes weekly during the summer and autumn months.

Instruction in anatomy, physiology, and hygiene is given by lectures, illustrated by cases in the hospital attached to the college; and in order to make the teaching as practically useful as possible, students are required to record the particulars of all cases admitted for treatment, especially the results of post-mortem examinations.

In the department of mathematics and surveying the instruction is rendered as practical as possible by opportunities which are afforded for instruction in the field, in surveying, leveling, and land-measuring, and in the use of the theodolite, spirit-level, and other instruments. Architectural and mechanical drawing are also carefully taught in the institution. To such students as desire it, instruction in carpentry and smiths' work is given in the shops attached to the farm buildings.

There are two terms in the year, with vacations of seven weeks each, one vacation commencing about the 18th of June, and the other on the 18th of December. Students who complete the two years' course receive a diploma as graduates, under the title of members, on having passed a satisfactory examination in agriculture, chemistry, and any other one subject selected by the candidates.

Students who live in the institution (in-students) pay £100 per annum, to be paid half yearly, in advance. Students who live out of the institution (ont-students) pay £50 per annum, half yearly, in advance.

There has recently been established at Cirencester a farmers' club, the lectures and discussions of which are of great service to the students of the college. Some of the professors belong to this club, and they find no difficulty in securing from among the leading farmers those who are willing to test practically the scientific discoveries or supposed improvements of the college, and to report results.

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

The chair of agriculture in this university is at present endowed jointly by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and the government, and is filled by Professor John Wilson, an experienced and able scholar in the science of agriculture. The efficiency of this chair has recently been greatly increased.

The university has resolved to grant degrees to those who pass the prescribed examinations, in conformity with the educational curriculum prescribed by the Highland and Agricultural Society. It has been arranged that the lectures on agriculture shall extend over two sessions, in order that the subject may receive a more comprehensive consideration than has hitherto been accorded to it. The course has, therefore, been arranged in two divisions, and is completed in two sessions. The

first is occupied chiefly in discussing the principles; while in the second the practice of modern agriculture is inore particularly considered. Each division of the subject is rendered as complete as possible, so as to meet also the requirements of those gentlemen who may not intend to go up for the diploma examination.

THE COURSE OF LECTURES.-First Division.-I. History of Agricul ture, with the various epochs of advancement up to the present time: Sacred Writings, Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Early and Middle Ages; Application of Science; Tull, Young, Sinclair, Davy, Liebig, Boussingault, &c.

II. General purposes of agriculture, conditions affecting it, and principles on which it is based; combination of knowledge necessary for their proper comprehension and successful application; the production of sufficient and regular supplies of food; civilization; increase of population; necessities for increased supplies; necessity for an acquaintance with the laws governing the three great kingdoms of nature, the animal, vegetable, and mineral, and the intimate union of all these. This combination of knowledge comprises

III. The Chemistry of Agriculture: The constituents and chemical composition of soils, cultivated crops, the atmosphere, rain and spring water; chemical changes effected by decomposition and recombinations in reference to the gaseous and mineral food of plants; rotation of crops, falle wing and manuring-their principles discussed.

IV. The Geology of Agriculture: Conditions under which the different strata forming the earth's crust were deposited; their composition, mechanical and chemical, mode of disintegration, &c.; the formation of soils; the condition and extent of surface soils, and their characteristics and influence on agriculture; local variations; economic produce of dif ferent formations, as stones for building and other purposes, marbles, slates, clays, limestones, metallic ores, coals, salt, &c.; general surface geology of Great Britain.

V. The Botany of Agriculture: The nature and character of the various agricultural plants, and the diseases and insect ravages to which they are most liable, and their remedies; the weeds of agriculture; indigenous plants as indicative of quality of soils; special crops cultivated for food or for technical purposes, as linseed, coriander, woad, teazles, &c.; arboriculture, the cultivation and management of fruit and forest trees; planting, pruning, felling, barking, &c.

VI. The Physics of Agriculture: Meteorology, including climate and the various conditions affecting it; atmospheric effects, as winds, rain, hail, thunder-storms, their causes explained; barometer, thermometer, dew-point, &c., indications afforded by them; the absorption and retention of heat and moisture by different soils, and their capillarity in reference to drainage; hydrodynamics; the general laws of light, heat, and electricity as affecting the vegetable kingdom.

Second Division.-I. The Mechanics of Agriculture; their application in the practical operations of the farm. This will comprise the principles of construction of plows, harrows, scarifiers, rollers, horse-hoes, drills, threshing machines, reaping and mowing machines, chaff cutters, crushing and grinding machines; the application of steam to tillage purposes; motive power-man, horse, wind, water, steam-their absolute and relative values and various modes of application considered,

II. Rotations of various districts discussed and explained; sequence of agricultural operations; economical divisions of labor; the hay and corn crop; different modes of harvesting.

III. Improvement of the Soil by Draining, Manuring, &c.: Draining,