•system of higlier education in the sciences and
industries by the Association of American Agri-
cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, the
Office of Experiment Stations of the Department
of Agi'iculture, and the Buieau of Education of
the Department of the Interior. The colleges
of agriculture may be divided into three classes,
according to the general differences in their
organization: (1) Colleges having only courses
in agriculture; ( 2 ) agricultural and mechanical
colleges: and (3) colleges (or schools or depart-
ments) of agriculture in universities. The Mas-
sachusetts Agricultural College is the only purely
agricultural college in this country. Twenty-
seven States and Territories have agricultural
and mechanical colleges, and in twenty the
courses in agriculture are connected with the
State universities. Harvard t'niversity also offers
courses in agriculture through the Bussey Insti-
tution. The college course in agriculture in
most of these institutions extends through four
years and leads to a bachelor's degree. It varies
consideralily in different institutions, as regards
the requirements both for admission and for
graduation. In some cases students are admitted
directly from the common schools, while in others
the entrance requirements are on a level with
those of higher grade colleges. In 1901 there
were nearly 7000 students in the agricultural
courses in these colleges. Short courses of a more
elementary and practical nature also are given in
many of these colleges. Special schools have been
organized in a few institutions, notably a dairy
school in the University of Wisconsin, and a sug-
ar-makers" school at Xew Orleans, in connection
with the Louisiana State University. Various
forms of university extension w'ork in agriculture
are largely engaged in by these colleges, through
the farmers' institutes (see Farmers' Insti-
tute) and home reading courses, and, broadly
speaking, through the publications of the experi-
ment stations.
Thus far. comparatively little has been done
in the United States toward the establishment
of schools of agriculture of secondary or high-
school grade. The most successful school of
this kind is that maintained at the University
of Minnesota. A similar school has been estab-
lished at the University of Nebraska. The agri-
cultural courses maintained in a number of the
institutions for colored students in the South
are of this grade, notably at Hampton, Va.. and
Tuskegee, Ala. A few private schools of agri-
culture have recently been established. There
is some agitation in favor of the introduction of
agriculture in the public high schools.
Nature study is being rajjidly introduced into
the common schools, and more or less successful
attempts are being made in a number of the
States, especially New York, Indiana, and Penn-
sylvania, to adapt teaching in this subject to
the requirements of the rural schools.
British Empire. A chair of agriculture in
the University of Edinburgh was founded and
endowed as early as 1790, and a professorship
of rural economy was established in the Univer-
sity of Oxford in 1796. A professorship of agri-
culture has recently (1899) been founded in the
University of Cambridge. The Albert Institu-
tion at Olasnevin. near Dublin, has existed since
1838, and the Royal Agricultural College, Ciren-
cester, since 184.5. Other important centres of
agricultural education in Great Britain are the
College of Agriculture, Downton, near Salisbury;
the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical Col-
lege, Glasgow; the University College of North
Wales, Bangor; the University College of
Wales, .berystwith; the Durham 'College of Sci-
ence, Newcastle-on-Tyne: the Oxford Extension
College, Reading; the University of Aberdeen;
and Yorkshire College, Leeds.
Grants of money in aid of education in agri-
culture are nuide through the board of agricul-
ture. Instruction in agriculture is given in a
number of the rural schools. Special attention
is being given to practical training in dairying,
and schools and classes in this subject are main-
tained in a number of places. Traveling schools,
equipped with modern dairy apparatus, have
attracted much attention in recent years.
In Canada, the agricultural college at Guelph,
Ontario, is a very successful institution. There
are a number of secondary schools of agi'iculture
in Quebec and Nova Scotia, and there is a dairy
school in New Brunswick. Provision has recent-
ly been made for instruction in agriculture in
normal and public schools in different parts of
the Dominion.
In Australia, there are agricultural colleges
at Gatton, Queensland; Richmond. New South
Wales: Roseworthy, South Australia; and Dook-
ie and Longerenong, Victoria. Agricultural in-
struction is also given by traveling experts at-
tached to the colonial departments of agriculture.
In New Zealand is the Canterbury Agricultural
College at Lincoln, and in Cape Colony there is i
a school of agriculture at Elsenburg.
France. An elaborate system of agricultural
education is maintained under the auspices of
the national government. At the head of this
system stands tile Institut yational Agronomique
at Paris, in which instruction of university
grade is given in agricultural science, supple-
mented by laboratory and field practice. Next
in order are the national schools of agriculture,
in which theoretical and practical instruction
are combined. These are located at Grignon,
Rennes, and Montpellier. A third class includes
the secondary agricultural schools for the chil-
dren of farmers, who receive theoretical and
practical instruction under competent agricul-
turists, and at the same time perform all the
work necessary to carrj' on the scliool farm. In
many of these schools general agriculture is
tauglit, but some are devoted to special lines,
such as viticidture. dairying, or irrigation. An-
other and older kind of agricultural schools
comprises those in which a system of apprentice-
ship is employed. On the completion of his term,
the student receives a small sum of money as
compensation for his labor. These schools are
no longer popular, and have materially decreased
in number.
Since 1S79, instruction in the elements of agri-
culture, horticulture, and natural liistory lias
been obligatory in the normal and primary
schools of France. In each department of the
country a professor of agriculture is appointed
to prepare a course of instruction in agriculture
for the normal school, to hold farmers' meetings
for the dissemination of information regarding
improved agricultural methods, and to main-
tain model fields of demonstration. Besides,
chairs of agriculture have been established in
many lyceums and colleges throughout France.
Important special schools are the dairy school
at Mamirolle. the school of agricultural indus-
tries at Douai, the school of horticulture at Ver-
Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/264
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AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.
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AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.