Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/265

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. sailles. iiiiil I 111' siluHil of liorse breeding at Le PiTi.

Hi:i.tiir.M. liol^imii has a system somewhat similar to that of Krance. but in some par- ticuhirs more tborouj;hly orfjaiiized. At the head of this system nvo the .Vijrioulliiral Insti- tute of (cml)loux and the University of Louvain. General and s])eeial af;ricuUuial seliiiols of see- ondary ijrade have been established for young men and yiiung women, iUid eourses of instruetion in agrieiiltnre are given in )niblie and private schools of seeondary grade. Courses in agricul- ture are given in the normal and primary schools also: numerous courses of lectures are provided for adult farmers in various parts of the coun- try, and a corps of goveriiment agriculturists is charged with disseminating information, and in various ways pronioling tile instruetion of farm- ers in improved methods of agrii-ult ure. OTUivit KfiiOi'iOAN States. (Jerm.iny has no uni- form system of agricultural education. Higher cour.ses are maintained in agricultural insti- tutes, and professorsliips are connected with many of the universities, e.g., those at Kiinigs- berg, Breslau. Ilallc. (Jiittingen. Leipzig, Rostock, and .lena. The .Vgrieultural High Seliool at Ber- lin, the .grieultural .eademy at I'oppclsdorf.the Technical High 8elmol at Munich, and the For- estry Academy at Tliarandt are important insti- tutions. Tlierc arc also numerous general and special courses in agricultural subjects in schools of lower grade.

Agricultural education is being actively fos- tered by the government of .ustria-Hungary, where more than l.iO institutions of dilTerent grades devoted to general and special instruction in agriculture have been established. The sub- ject is taui^ht in the rural elementary schools and also Ijv a corps of traveling instructors main- tained by the government.

Italy has agricultural colleges at Milan and Portici, about thirty general and special schools of secondary grade, and a recently organized system of elementary education under direction of the ministry of public instruction. Denmark is giving much attention to the gen- eral and teelmieal education of the agricultural population. There is an agricultural college at Copenhagen, and there are a number of agricul- tural schools which receive financial aid from the government. The Royal Agricultural Soci- ety of Denmark promotes agricultural education through meetings, puldications. and the services of dairy and veterinary experts, payment of ex- penses for agricultural journeys, and the placing of apprentices on farms, Sweden has agricultvtral colleges at LHtuna and Alnarp, 2(1 seeondary schools, several dairy schools, instruction in normal and primary schools, and a corps of traveling instructors. There is a similar system in Norway, the college being at Aas.

The Russian system of agricultural education is organized for the most part under the minis- try of agricultural and imperial domains, and in- cludes agricultural institutes at the universities of Kazan, Kiev, and JIoscow, similar institutions at Novoya .Alexandria. Riga, St, Petersburg, and Mustiala (Finland), seeondary schools, and ele- mentary courses in the ])ublic schools.

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STA'TION. .ii institution, or department of an institution, devoted to scientific and practical investigations for the benefit of agriculture, the inspection of materials, animals, and plants used in or injurious to agriculture, and the dissemination of information on the theory and practice of agriculture. They grew out of the chemicil studies of such men as Liebig in Germany, Boussingault in France, and Lawes and Gilbert in England during the (irst half of. the nineteenth century. Systematic investigations in agriculture were begun by Lawes and tJilbert at Roth- amsted, England, in lS4:i. The first experiment station organized as a public institution was es- tablished in 1S.')1 at -Miickern, near the city of Leipzig, Germany, and under the influence of Leipzig I'niversity. In the United States the first stations were established at Weslcyan Uni- versity, Middlctown, t'onn., by the State of Con- necticut, in 1875. under direction of W. O. Atwater, and about the same time at the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley, Cal., by the uni- versity, under direction of K. V. Hilgard. Previous to this, agricultural investigations had been carried on at Vale University under profes- sors S, V. .Johnson and William H. Brewer, and at agricultural colleges in several States, Agri- cultural ex]ierinicnt stations arc now maintaim-d in nearly all the countries of the world, and are usually under the patronage of general or local governments. They are most completely organ- ized in the United States, France, Germany, Bel- gium, Holland, Austria- Hungary, Denmark, Japan, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and Russia. They are conducted on varicms plans in all parts of the British Empire.

Onc.AMZATio.x. In the United States there were in l!)01 fifty-seven stations, receiving annually .$720,000 from the National Government under the Hatch Act of 1S.S7, and more than $.500,000 from State governments and other sources. They employed over 700 persons in ad- ministration and inquiry, and issued that year 44.5 annual reports and bulletins, which are sent through the mails under frank to more than half a million addresses. With few exceptions, they are departments of the agri- cultural colleges established under the land- grant act (Morrill Act) of 1802, and are inde- pendent of each other as regards the planning and conduct of their operations. They are united in a national svstem through the Association of -American Agricultural Colleges and Ex- periment Stations and the Office of Ex])erimenl Stations in the United States Department of Ag- riculture. This ollice exercises supervision of their expenditures from the national fund, and gives them advice anil assistance in many ways. It summarizes the accounts of the work of the sta- tions and kindred institutions throughout the world in the periodical known as the Expfiinicnl Station h'ccord, and gives jxipular resumes of their investigations in the Fiirmcm' liullclhis series of the department, under the general title of Kxperimciit Station B'or/v. It also di- rectly manages the stations in .-laska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, for which the National Government approiuiated .$3.000 ($12,000 for each station) for the fiscnl year ended .Tune 30, 1002.

Fl'N't'Tlo.x. The operations of the stations cover a wide range of scientific and practical work relating to every branch of agriculture and horticulture, and including original investigations, verification, and dem<mstration experiments, studies of natural agricultural conditions and resources, inspection and control service, and dissemination ol information. Prac-