people of our globe than any other pursuit, the necessity for
scientific training for agriculturists becomes more and more evident
to educated people. It is true that the cultivators of the soil do not
generally admit the need of special schooling. At the beginning of
this century very few educators, even, thought so. It was supposed
that tilling the soil had nothing to do with schools, and that science
had no connection with plowing and sowing. Agricultural lectureships
were established early in the eighteenth century in several European
universities, but they were regarded as curiosities of the
age--superfluities of culture, rather than aids to the cultivator.
Farmers themselves were supposed to be the only competent teachers of
agriculture, and experience the only possible guide. But it has become
apparent that no farmer's experience is broad enough to be adapted to
all soils and climates. The successful farmer has come to regard the
land which he owns as a wonderful machine which, if rightly managed,
will turn out the most costly and perfect product; but which, if
neglected or ignorantly handled, will disappoint his high hopes and
possibly impoverish its owner. The development of commerce which so
easily introduces the wheat and potatoes and other products of our
country into competition with the grain produced in a distant land has
taught the producers of this generation, and especially the citizen of
European countries, that the farmer who can produce the largest crop
of grain from the fewest acres, at the lowest price for the best
cereal or vegetable, is the only successful cultivator. The nation
which succeeds best in this direction with all its soil products is
the one which is sure to have the "balance of trade" always in its
favor.
The United States awoke to this idea when, in 1862, Congress passed
the Land-Grant College Act, allotting Government lands in every State
to aid in founding agricultural colleges. The country became more
profoundly moved by this idea when, in 1887, Congress passed the Hatch
Act, granting annually to each State the sum of fifteen thousand
dollars to organize and perpetuate agricultural experiment stations,
and still further when it organized a Department of Experiment
Stations as an integral part of the Department of Agriculture.
But several of the countries of Europe have anticipated our action in
behalf of agricultural education by a quarter of a century. Germany
and France and little Switzerland realized fifty years ago that
agriculture in its various departments must be pursued with the aid of
the latest science combined with the broadest experience. These
countries have not waited for the laborer to perfect himself in
experience--an impossible attainment--but they have opened schools of
every possible grade, arranged courses of lectures by the best
educated scientists, made elementary agriculture a compulsory subject
in the curricula of the common schools, sent out traveling instructors
to confer with and advise and give courses of lectures to the older
farmers, made it possible--even compulsory--that young people should
attend technical schools at odd hours of the day or evening, and even
tempted them to pass a serious examination in their respective studies
by the offer of a valuable prize as the reward of success. It is said
that Charles Dickens once made a speech at an agricultural dinner in
which he somewhat derisively said that "the field it paid the farmer
best to cultivate was the one within the ring fence of his own skull."
Dickens was correct. The farmer needs scientific education. The best
civilized and progressive nations of to-day are admitting the
utterance of Dickens to be a serious truth. Vast sums of money are
appropriated by European governments to prevent their agricultural
classes from continuing in or subsiding into ignorance of their art.
Even the peasants of Russia, notably in the province of Ekaterinoslav,
by the generous appliances for special agricultural education made by
the Ministry of Agriculture and State Domains, united with the efforts
of the Ministry of Public Instruction, are made to feel that without
expert teaching a man can not succeed even in the raising of fowls or
of bees, the culture of silkworms, the making of wine, or the manuring
of his fields. Consul Heenan[20] says that in the province named above
the Government annually rents thirty-two experiment fields, each eight
acres in extent, distributed four in each district, and each one
located in the midst of peasant fields. Each of these fields is placed
in charge of some scientifically educated public-school teacher, who
is paid twenty-five dollars per year for his direction, and receives,
besides, all the harvest produced. The teacher uses the native tools
and seeds, and hires neighbor peasants to assist in demonstrating that
with care in plowing, cleaning of seed, cultivating, and reaping, his
field will produce larger crops than his slovenly or ignorant
neighbor. The object lesson has its certain result. The peasants are
gradually adopting the four-field culture system--viz., fallow, winter
crops, pastures, and summer crops.
[Footnote 20: See United States Consular Reports, vol. lvii, No.
215, August, 1898, article on Gardener's Schools in Russia, by
Consul Heenan.]
Besides these, Russia sustains 68 agricultural schools, containing
3,157 pupils, at a cost of $403,500, of which sum the Government pays
$277,500, and the local _zemstovs_ (societies) or the school founders
pay $136,000.
In France the eminent scientist Lavoisier, at the close of the last
century, advocated the founding of a national school for the teaching
of agricultural science. His plan for government initiation was not
realized, but in 1822 Matthieu de Dombasle founded, near Nancy, the
first true agricultural school. In 1829 and 1830 the schools at
Grignon and Grandjouan were founded by August Bella and Riefell
respectively. Now France boasts of one of the most perfect systems of
agricultural education of any country of the world. Under the joint
direction of her Ministers of Agriculture and of Public Instruction,
France plans to cover every phase of education from the simplest forms
of object lessons taught by law in all her primary schools to the
crowning National Institute of Agriculture at Paris. The facts of
science, united with the soundest experience, are demonstrated to the
farmer by lectures and experimentation; the future agriculturists of
the country are educated in the certainties of scientific research at
graded schools, ranging from elementary to university degrees, and
every milkmaid is taught the necessity of promptness, cleanliness, and
system in the care of milch cows and in the disposal of their milk.
The former able Director-General of French Agriculture, Monsieur
Tisserand, says: "The aim and object of France has been not only to
give to children and young people the means of acquiring knowledge,
but also to establish means for _interesting old cultivators_. In this
century of extreme competition we must admit that the agriculturist
can only thrive if, in working the soil, he adopts scientific methods.
Old routine is no longer sufficient in this branch, as it is proved to
be insufficient in manufacture." In carrying out her enlightened
policy, instruction was given in 1893[21] to 3,600 pupil teachers.
Thirty agricultural laboratories throughout the country furnish
analyses of soils and manures for the help of cultivators, and 3,362
trial fields are established where farmers can profit by experiments
suitable to their own districts. The special farm schools number
sixteen; practical schools of agriculture, thirty-nine; national
schools of agriculture and horticulture, six; three veterinary
schools; and one each, bearing the name of National Agronomic
Institute, is a shepherd school, a cheese, and a silkworm school. In
the universities are no less than 160 departments and chairs of
agriculture for students of profoundest research. All this costs the
departments alone over 4,504,050 francs per annum.
[Footnote 21: Statistics of 1893. The French Government only
occasionally issues its official report of agricultural schools.]
In Prussian Germany no less activity is displayed or energy put forth
to make the farmer's occupation one of financial profit and scientific
status. Statistics for 1897 are at hand in the report of the Prussian
Minister of Agriculture. The German system is based on the theory that
schools and colleges are the only places where theoretical agriculture
can be properly taught. Few of the higher agricultural schools first
established were exclusively such. A liberal education could be
obtained at most of them without touching the subject of agriculture.
Later educators have developed a system which begins by fostering a
love for Nature in the minds of the pupils in the kindergarten, and
patiently develops that love through all the dozen or more grades of
schools until it culminates in the polytechnic school or the degree
granted by the university.
Germany is indebted to the learned Professor Thaer for the
establishment of its first agricultural school at Möglin in 1807. But
more than all is she, in common with all the world, indebted to the
famous chemist Baron von Liebig, who, in 1840, announced the
scientific truth which underlies all arguments for agricultural
education--viz., that no matter how impoverished a soil is naturally,
or has become by excessive cropping, its fertility may be restored,
maintained, and even increased by providing it with the mineral and
organic matter which it lacks.
Prussian agricultural affairs are under the supervision of the
Ministry of Agriculture, Domains, and Forests. The state maintains
three grades of schools--higher, middle, and lower--as in other
European countries. The most celebrated are the Royal Agricultural
High Schools at Berlin and Popplesdorf, two royal academies of
forestry, and the university courses in agriculture at Halle,
Göttingen, Königsberg, Leipsic, Giessen, and Jena. The state expends
something like two hundred thousand dollars annually on agricultural
education. In Germany agricultural education has so broadened out as
to include training in every technical part of a farmer's
work--culture of forests, fruits, flowers, and vines; schools to teach
wine, cider, and beer making, machine repairing, engine running, barn
construction, and surveying; knowledge of poultry, bees, and silkworm
raising; domestic economy, sewing, and accounts for farm women--all in
addition to the long scientific courses of study and years of
practical work on an established farm. Verily, the country that excels
Germany in training agriculturists must be _par excellence_ in its
methods.
A special feature of agricultural teaching is the traveling professor
(_Wanderlehrer_). United States Consul Monaghan enthusiastically
describes him: "These teachers, supported partly by the state and by
agricultural unions, go from place to place ... and lecture on
agricultural and horticultural subjects. Their purpose is to lift up
and ennoble agricultural life; to afford the farmer the knowledge
gleaned by science since he left the school; to impart to him the best
methods of selecting soils, fertilizers, cattle, trees, etc.; to teach
him how to use his lands to best advantage, to graft, to breed in; to
get the best, quickest, and most profitable results. These teachers
are skilled scientists, practical workers, not theorists, ...
perfectly familiar with the wants and needs of their districts. Armed
with this knowledge, the teacher's usefulness is certain and
unlimited. When he speaks his voice is that of one in authority, it is
heeded.... He is a walking encyclopædia of knowledge, especially of
knowledge pertaining to the woods, hills, farms, and fields."
Austria has, like Germany, a system of agricultural and forestry
schools in three grades--viz., superior, middle, and lower. Its oldest
school of superior grade was established in 1799 at Krumman.[22]
Similar schools existed later at Grätz, Trieste, Lemberg, Trutsch, and
Altenburg. The latter is especially complete in every appliance for
instruction, and well patronized. The middle schools provide two-year
courses of study and practice, and are located at Grossan, Kreutz,
Dublany, and other points, while the lower schools incline less to
study and more to lectures and farm practice. They are located in the
provinces of Bohemia, Styria, Galicia, and Carinthia.
[Footnote 22: See Barnard's Journal of Education, vol. xx, 1870,
p. 673.]
Forestry schools of various grades exist at Mariabrunn, Wissewasser,
Aussen, Pibram, Windschact, and Nagny; of these, Mariabrunn is
especially deserving of mention for its thorough course and complete
equipment.
Switzerland was the home of the philanthropist and educator
Fellenburg. His school, established at Hopyl in 1806, was a
philanthropy in aid of the peasantry, concerning whom he said that
possessing nothing but bodies and minds, the cultivation of these was
the only antidote for their poverty. At least three thousand pupils
received their education in agriculture here. The Federal Polytechnic
School at Zurich is the nation's pride. Out of six courses of superior
training which it provides for its one thousand students, forestry
and agriculture count as two. Five universities and numerous special
schools furnish aid to agricultural education.
The little kingdoms of Belgium and Holland are following hard upon the
tracks of their powerful neighbors. In Belgium may be found superior
institutions of agriculture, horticulture, veterinary science, and
forestry at Gembloux, Vilvorde, Cureghem, and Bouillon respectively.
In Holland, whose people robbed the sea to obtain lands for farms and
homes, about £71,500 were expended by the state on its agricultural
department in 1897. Its first school, established by a communal
society at Hären in 1842, was discontinued. The state in 1876 adopted
the school of agriculture which has been established at Wageningen as
its own, and this institution can fairly lay claim to equality with
any in Europe. Government also supports the State Veterinary College
at Utrecht, and subsidizes a school of forestry and several dairy
schools. Agricultural teaching in primary schools has not yet proved a
success.
Italy has not made such progress in agricultural education as her
northern neighbors, yet she is not indifferent to the requirements of
the times. She has a most unique scheme for Government superintendence
of agricultural matters. All comes under the purview of a general
Director of Agriculture, assisted by a Council for Agricultural
Instruction, which latter was established by royal decree in 1885, and
reorganized in 1887. Four divisions of the department exist--namely,
(1) agriculture proper, (2) zoötechny, (3) forestry, and (4)
agricultural hydraulics. Statistics are not easily procured, but
recent catalogues show that the two Royal Superior Schools of
Agriculture, located respectively at Milan and Portici, are
institutions of which any country might be proud. Of the latter Mr. E.
Neville Rolfe, British consul, wrote in 1897 that it was originally a
provincial establishment, but in 1885 it had been established by royal
charter and domiciled in the magnificent grounds and buildings of a
disused royal palace. Its study course requires three years to
complete, and graduates obtain the degree of Laureato Agronomo. Up to
1896, two hundred and twenty-eight students had obtained this degree,
most of whom are instructors or Government employees of high rank. It
is known also that thirty-three special and practical agricultural
schools exist in different parts of the kingdom.
Much can not be said in praise of agricultural education in Spain.
That country possesses the machinery for education of the higher
grades, but through her seven distinctly agricultural colleges,
located at Madrid, Saragossa, Barcelona, Corunna, Valencia, Caceres,
and Jerez, she seems only to have obtained men for Government service
at home or abroad. Spain expended in 1896 on agricultural education
the sum of £58,460, but she evidently sends no _Wanderlehrer_
instructors among her peasant farmers.
It is said that Portugal possesses seven agricultural schools,
attended in 1896 by one hundred and eighty-seven students, but of
their location, save one, and courses of study the writer has no
information. The Government conduct of education is committed to a
Director-General of Agriculture. The leading school is named the
General Institute of Agriculture, and is located at Lisbon. It
provides four courses--viz., (1) rural engineering, (2) agronomy, (3)
sylviculture, (4) veterinary medicine. It has a large tract of land
for demonstration purposes located a few miles from the city.
Concerning Greece and the smaller kingdoms in southeastern Europe,
together with the land of the Turk, not much to the encouragement of
the scientific agriculturist can be said; but turning northward across
Europe to the Scandinavian countries quite a different state of things
becomes apparent. At once we find that the system of agricultural
education is highly developed, and in some phases is not surpassed by
other countries. Immediately we are in a network of dairy schools,
experiment stations, chemical and seed-control stations, agricultural
societies, colleges, and universities. Here we find five institutions
all under royal patronage and state support. In Norway is the Higher
Agricultural School at Aas, established in 1859. In Sweden stands the
Agricultural Institute at Ultuna, established in 1849, and the Alnarp
Agricultural and Dairy Institute, established in 1862. In Denmark is
the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College at Copenhagen,
established in 1773 as a veterinary college. In Finland the Mustiala
Agricultural and Dairy Institute, established in 1840. In these four
small states there exist agricultural, horticultural, forestry, and
dairy schools of all grades to the number of one hundred and
fifty-nine. Education in agriculture is not attempted in the primary
public schools of Norway or in any of these Scandinavian countries,
but agricultural elementary instruction is begun in what other
continental countries would call secondary schools, and is provided
for persons intending to be farmers and who are eighteen years of age
and older. Norway spent on elementary agricultural education in
secondary schools, in 1895-'96, the sum of $31,182, and Finland more
than doubled that sum.
Crossing the Channel to Great Britain, again we see a nation intent on
solving the question of success for her agricultural population.
Celebrated Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen early began to plan for
an educated peasantry, but it was long before any national system was
evolved. The sectional divisions and peculiarities belonging
severally to Scot and Celt and Saxon have not yet permitted a uniform
legislation. Ireland and Scotland each has its own scheme of
Government supervision, and both differ from England and Wales. It is
estimated that but ten per cent of England's laboring population is
concerned with agriculture for support, while in Ireland there is
scarcely ten per cent of the people who are not dependent on
agriculture for existence. In consequence, we find in Ireland, as in
France, intense interest centers upon the plan to teach agriculture
and horticulture in the elementary public schools, while in England,
until very recently, agricultural education served principally to
produce a class of educated scientific men fitted for the Government
home and colonial service.
In Ireland compulsory attendance on primary schools is made by law. In
1876 Ireland claimed to be the pioneer country in providing compulsory
elementary agricultural instruction in all her rural schools. She has
desperately clung to the theory that in providing such education in
her elementary schools she would eventually train a nation of
agriculturists. To attain this end, elementary text-books were
prepared, which all teachers must use. The Government grant for a pass
at examination in agriculture was much larger than a pass in any other
study; teachers who held certificates to teach it were given higher
salaries than others, and to enable teachers to prepare for such
certificates, scholarships were offered them at teachers' colleges
(normal schools), and their railway fare was free in going and coming.
Plots of ground at schoolhouse or teacher's house were provided, where
flower and vegetable culture could be constantly practiced, and a
special grant was allowed to the school for cultivating a successful
garden, and another special for classes showing proficiency in
practical work. Gardens were cultivated at convents and workhouses,
and the subject was taught theoretically to "half-time" pupils and
students at the "evening continuation schools."
In December, 1896, Ireland had 8,606 national schools, with an average
attendance of 815,248 pupils. She also had 150 half-time schools, 155
workhouse schools, 267 convent schools, 30 model schools, five
training colleges for teachers, and two training agricultural
institutes (at Glassnevin and at Munster), and in all of these
agricultural science or practice is either a compulsory or a voluntary
subject. What country can surpass Ireland's enthusiasm for
agricultural training?[23]
[Footnote 23: A bill for the development of Irish agricultural
industry and Irish technical education, providing for Government
aid to private enterprise in agriculture, and in manufacturing
industries also, has just passed (August, 1899) the House of
Commons, and is assured its passage by the House of Lords also.]
Scotland enjoys deservedly the distinction of having been first among
the peoples of Europe to introduce in the university course scientific
education in agriculture. In 1790 a chair was established in the
University of Edinburgh, and a course of agricultural lectures was
given therefrom by Rev. D. Walker. Better than that, in 1743 a volume
entitled Select Transactions was published by Maxwell, representing
the agricultural society known as the "Society of Improvers," and
numbering at one time three hundred members. Out of this society grew
the "Highland and Agricultural Society," which organization has
fostered every agricultural effort which private beneficence or royal
grant has initiated in the land since 1834. Through its munificence
both the departments of forestry and veterinary surgery have been
placed upon a firm educational basis, and the educational lectureship
of Edinburgh University has been permanently endowed. It has
instituted its own syllabus of examinations for granting "Fellowships
in Agriculture," and stimulated pupils of the secondary schools to
make the effort by offering prizes and scholarships to the ambitious
students.
The University of Aberdeen has lately entered the field as an
agricultural educator by becoming what the Government styles a
"collegiate center," receiving a straight subsidy of £100 per annum,
and furnishing professional instructors to rural assemblies arranging
lectures for them. In the public schools of Scotland agricultural
science is arranged for as an optional study from the third to the
sixth standards inclusive. In 1895-'96, 4,148 pupils passed
examinations in the subject, and the cost of this to the state was
£42,792. In 1896-'97 pupils in the "evening continuation schools" to
the number of 1,089 passed in agriculture, and 115 others in
horticulture.