CHAPTER V.

THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SCHOOLS OF FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

Primary agricultural instruction for the children of farmers in France, although proposed and discussed from time to time since the latter part of the eighteenth century, was not actually put upon the programmes of the schools until 1850, and even then only as an elective. In consequence of several bad harvests a thorough inquiry to determine the best way of ameliorating the condition of agriculture was begun in 1866 and lasted until 1870. This inquiry included the question of agricultural instruction in primary schools, and involved a reorganization of that grade of instruction, in order to include agriculture in its programme. After the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 the country realized that one of the principal means of repairing its disasters was to be found in the education of the masses, especially from a practical and industrial point of view, and as part of the new development of instruction schools of horticulture and agriculture were established in 1873, and in 1876 the Institut National Agronomique was reopened at Paris. These institutions represented secondary and superior instruction in agriculture, while besides them, in 1879, the elementary principles of agriculture were included among the obligatory studies of primary instruction. This arrangement was confirmed by the law of March 28, 1882, which organized agricultural instruction both in the primary, the normal, and the superior schools of the country, the fruit of this wise measure of a quarter of a century ago being shown, says M. Tisserand, in the improved methods of agriculture and the entrance of the scientific spirit even into the management of small farms.

THE SPIRIT OF THIS INSTRUCTION.

Instruction in agriculture in elementary schools, said M. Prilleux at the Internanational Congress of Agriculture in 1889, should not resemble that in history or the catechism; it should be addressed to the intelligence and not to the memory of the children, who should be trained to observe carefully and systematically things around them-rocks, plants, animals, machines, and implements. The teachers were not at that time prepared to give this instruction, but still gave text-books to their pupils to memorize instead of pointing out the things themselves which are described in the books and making the incipient study objective. Continuing in this direction, inasmuch as modern agriculture is based upon science, elementary instruction in agriculture should include elementary experimental science, physical and chemical, with especial reference to agriculture, and accordingly those branches were included in the school programmes, sufficient chemistry, for example, being given to enable the pupil to understand the composition of soils and fertilizers and what elements are required for plant life. The course in normal schools was also modified to prepare teachers to supply the needs of the elementary schools properly in agricultural instruction. The pupil teachers were taught experimental sciences, natural history, horticulture, and

agriculture, and were also trained in the best methods of teaching those branches, while the schools were equipped with suitable laboratories and collections.to carry out this instruction. The work in agriculture of the elementary schools is extended to schools for adults in the form of evening classes and secondary assemblies for lectures and object lessons.

The means of carrying out practical and experimental instruction in agriculture, aside from the usual laboratory scientific apparatus, consisted of actual garden and farm work and experiments indoors in growing plants under varying conditions of exposure to heat, light, and moisture, and with a view to discovering the effect of different gases, fertilizing substances, different soils, etc., upon them. M. Le Blanc gives many illustrations of the chemical and botanical experiments, the latter showing the effects of the various fertilizers by the greater or less development of the plants. To illustrate the foregoing general remarks we give the following programmes:

I. ELEMENTARY PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

PHYSICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES.

Elementary course (7 to 9 years of age)—Comprising object lessons graded according to a plan chosen by the teacher, but which once adopted must be regularly followed. Man, animals, vegetables, minerals; observation of ordinary objects, and phenomena, with simple explanations; elementary notions upon the transformation of things of daily use (food, tissues, paper, wood, stones, metals); small collections made by the pupils, especially during school promenades.

Middle course (9 to 11 years of age)-Including elementary notions of natural science. Man: Brief description of the human body and ideas of the principal functions of life. Animals: Grand divisions and classification of the vertebrates by the aid of one animal for each group taken as a type. Vegetables: Study of the principal organs of plants, taking a few chosen types; grand divisions of the vegetable kingdom; useful and injurious plants pointed out, especially during school promenades.

The three states of matter, solid, liquid, and gaseous; air and water; combustion; experimental demonstrations on a small scale.

Superior course (11 to 13 years of age)-Being a review and extension of the middle course. Man: Digestion, the circulation, respiration, the nervous system, the organs of sense; practical course in hygiene; abuse of alcohol, tobacco, etc. Animals: Outlines of classification; useful and injurious animals. Vegetables: Essential parts of plants; principal groups; herborisations. Minerals: Summarized ideas upon soil, rocks, fossils, geological formations, examples taken from the neighborhood; excursions and collections. Elementary notions of physics: Weight, the lever, equilibrium of liquids, atmospheric pressure, the barometer; very elementary notions and simple experiments upon heat, light, electricity, magnetism (the thermometer, steam engine, lightning conductor, telegraph, compass). Elementary notions of chemistry: Simple and compound bodies; common metals and salts.

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

Elementary course.-First lessons in the school garden.

Middle course.-Lectures, object lessons, and excursions, to show the principal kinds of soils and fertilizers, the common kinds of labor and tools (spade, mattock, plow, etc.). Superior course.-More methodical ideas of agricultural labor, farming tools, drainage, natural and artificial fertilizers; seed time and harvest; domestic animals; agricultural bookkeeping. Horticulture: Principal means of multiplying the most useful vegetables of the region. Arboriculture: Grafting.

II. SUPERIOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

The programmes for such of these schools as have a three-years' course (for pupils over 13 years of age) by decree of 1893 are as follows:

The soil; subsoil; modifications by cultivation. Farming tools. Different farming operations. Study of plants from the agricultural standpoint. Natural agents of vegetation. Domestic animals. Useful and injurious insects. The garden; tools; principal operations of horticulture.

SECOND AND THIRD YEARS.

The soil and water; drainage and irrigation. Operations and implements for farming on a large scale. Cultivation suitable to the region. Natural and artificial meadows. Viticulture. Cattle. The farmyard. Bee and silk culture. Gardening. The kitchen garden, fruit garden, garden work and produce. Sylviculture. Agricultural economy. Agricultural accounts.

PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

General section.

[Four hours a week.]

FIRST YEAR.

Pupils will act as assistants to those of the second and third years.

SECOND AND THIRD YEARS.

Spring and summer work.-Gardening: demonstrative cultures; grafting; comparative experiments in culture-treating different varieties of plants with the same fertilizer and the same plants with different fertilizers. Laying out squares and beds for demonstrations. Special cultivation of plants of the region.

Winter work.-Preparation of products used in agriculture; lime in different forms, salts of copper, etc.; liming, sulphating; experimental study of the elements of an earth, of a vegetable mold, of ashes, and of the principal fertilizers (experiments only qualitative). Determination of the proportion of lime in a soil, of alcohol in a wine, etc.

Section of agriculture.

Six hours a week.]

INDOOR WORK.

Study of seeds.-Seeds of cultivated plants and of noxious plants. Dodder; how to prevent its growth. How to determine the purity of seeds. Germination. Germinative power of different seeds.

Soils. Composition, mineral constituents; physical analysis of soils. Rocks of the region; soils produced from them; transported soils. How to take samples of soils for analysis. Difference between soil and subsoil.

Fertilizers.-External characters of the fertilizers of commerce, their preparation and method of application. How to take samples for analysis.

Agricultural implements.-How to take them to pieces and set them up; greasing and oiling; replacing parts. The work done by various tools. Keeping in repair. Plants. Herbariums.

Milk.-Determination of the quantity of cream. Butter making. Manufacture of cheese and rennet. Precautions to insure the greatest cleanliness. Cattle.-Dentition and age. Practice on anatomical specimens, and occasionally on living animals. The hoof of the horse, the ox, the ass, and how to shoe those animals.

Beehives. Different types; manufacture of hives of different sorts, and particularly those with removable frames.

Gardening material.-Making straw matting; trellises; props; spades; rakes; handles for tools, etc.

Remedies for plants.-Manufacture of quicklime; solutions of sulphate of iron bouillie bordelaise (solution of copper sulphate and quicklime) and similar mixtures, sucrate of copper, etc. Use of the pulverizer. Sulphating seeds.

Buildings and material.-Making poultry houses, rabbit hutches, etc., and their care (cleaning, painting). Disinfection of stables, cattle sheds, sheep folds, etc. Bee culture; breeding rabbits, pigeons, poultry, and fattening them. Collecting insects.

OUTDOOR WORK.

Spading, raking, rolling, clipping, etc. Grafting in the nursery and on the experiment table; trimming fruit trees; seed beds; transplanting; setting out slips, etc.; weeding, divers cultivating operations.

Fertilizers.-Preparation of and spreading complementary fertilizers (mineral and others); making compost heaps.

Applying flour of sulphur by blower to destroy oïdium of the vine, the rust of vegetables, peas, melons, etc. Applying copper compounds by the pulverizer to protect potatoes, tomatoes, etc., and vines and pear trees.

Harvesting, storing, and preserving crops.—Silos, haycocks, etc.

Special beds for making a comparative study of the action of different fertilizers and of different varieties of cultivated plants. Visits to nurseries, gardens, markets, and fairs of the neighborhood.

Every visit or excursion will be made the subject of a report which the teacher will correct carefully.

III. -NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR MEN.

The distribution of studies in normal schools for men is shown in the following table. The figures indicate the number of hours a week devoted to each subject.

The instruction in agriculture in the normal schools is advanced and the programmes indicate much technical detail. A few examples must suffice. The following subjects are among those prescribed for the first year:

Agrology, study of the soil.—(1) Soil and subsoil. Nature and composition, definitions, origin and formation of the arable layer. Effects of meteorological, mechanical, and chemical action upon the soil. (2) Classification of soils according to their physical and chemical properties; analysis of soils; productive power or fertility of soils; circumstances which influence the quality of soils, such as geographical situation, altitude, inclination and exposure of the ground, and the distribution of rain; physical properties and chemical composition of soils suitable for wheat, rye, barley, etc. (3) Means of modifying the composition of the soil and its physical properties. Fertilizers of animal, vegetable, and mineral origin; details of composition; the preparation and treatment of each, with calculations of the quantities needed for various purposes, etc., are given as parts of the programme, together with methods of chemical analysis.

Similar minute practical details are laid down for the study of irrigation and drainage, and for phytotechnics or the cultivation of plants.

In the second year similar minuteness of study is likewise devoted to zootechnics, or the breeding and care of animals, and to horticulture in all its branches.

The instructions relating to the teaching of agriculture in the normal schools still further elucidate its thoroughness. A few examples will illustrate this fact. Thus under botany the instructions read:

By means of microscopic preparations made in presence of the students the teacher will initiate them into the manipulation of the microscope and show them how to distinguish by that means the different parts of a plant, its tissues and the contents of its cells, etc. The description of the organs of a plant shall always be connected with facts which have an agricultural interest or application. Thus, apropos of roots, it will be well, after studying normal roots, to point out the existence of the nodosities of the roots of leguminous plants and the fundamental fact which follows from the study of them, viz, the nitrogenous nutrition of the plants of that family. The knowledge of the different types of the ramification of roots will permit the establishment of the principle of the afternation of crops, and the determination of the comparative value of different modes of sowing.

Under geology the directions are to study the actual phenomena of the region. After the teacher has familiarized the students with some of the common minerals and rocks-feldspathic, silicious, argillaceous-limestones and gypsum, he will explain the action of water on them, with demonstrations from the rocks of the neighborhood, and generalize from those observations. Then, in studying the action of infiltration from surface rain water, the phenomena of solution and precipitation will be insisted upon, which will aid in explaining the deposition and consolidation of various formations, e. g., of sand into sandstones, or conglomerates, deposits of limestone, gypsum, salt, etc. The interest of the teachers of agriculture in their work is stimulated by the establishment of a system of prizes (medals) granted by the Government as rewards for excellence in inculcating agricultural knowledge, both theoretical and practical. The