COURSES FOR PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS.

With a view to acquainting public-school teachers with horticulture, gardening, and other branches of agriculture, the department of agriculture began to organize in 1891 short courses on these subjects at the agricultural and garden establishments under the control of the department, and in other localities. These classes are held generally in summer, when the public-school teachers have their vacations, and run from one to one and one-half months. Other persons besides the teachers may attend such courses, but only by special permit from the department of agriculture. At these courses there are delivered lectures on the local farming industry and the easiest way to improve it. At the end of the courses the students undergo an examination, and to those who pass satisfactorily certificates are given in which it is only stated how long the student has attended the courses, but nothing is said about his progress in his studies. And to those who have been the most successful in their studies at these courses are given, as rewards, garden instruments, books, seeds, and plants. Such courses were designed to be held at the following institutions in 1897:

(1) At the Goretsk Agricultural School, with one and one-half months' course, from April 20. For admission to this course a certificate from the directory of public schools is required.

(2) At the Uman Agricultural School, from May 15 to July 1, on horticulture, gardening, sericulture, and apiculture. On entering these courses the public school teachers must present a permit from their superiors. The number of students is limited to 60. Preference is given to public-school teachers who have plots of land attached to their schools. The persons attending these courses can hire lodgings with board in the neighboring village at from 10 to 15 rubles ($5.14 to $7.71) a month.

(3) At the Marinsk Agric ultural School, from the middle of April to June 1, on gardening and apiculture. Persons wishing to enter these courses must present a petition to the director in due season.

(4) At the Kazan Agricultural School, from April 25 to May 25, on gardening, kitchen gardening, and apiculture. Applicants must send in a petition to the director not later than April 15, and also a certificate of their identity. The number of students is limited to 30.

(5) At the Kharkov Agricultural School, from May 1 to June 1, on gardening, apiculture, and sericulture. Here preference is given to public-school teachers who have land connected with their schools and who have a better scientific education. Thirty students are received to these courses.

(6) At the Bessarabia School of Enology, on viticulture and wine making, in July.

(7) At the Marino-Garsk Agricultural School, on horticulture and gardening, from May 1 to June 15.

(8) At the Uspensk Agricultural School, from June 15 to July 31, on gardening and horticulture. The number of students limited to 20; preference given to teachers (male and female) whose schools have land connected with them. Board and lodging can be had at the neighboring village of Smolensk, at 10 rubles ($5.14) per month.

(9) At the Burashev School, on gardening and agriculture, from May 15 to July 1.

(10) At the Ekaterinoslav School Garden, from June 1 to July 1, on gardening, apiculture, and sericulture. Public-school teachers wishing to enter those courses must present, together with a permit from their superior, a petition to the committee for the organization of school gardens in the government of Ekaterinoslav, which committee is attached to the Ekaterinoslav section of the Impe

rial Russian Gardening Society. All other persons must address their petitions to the curator of the school about a month before the beginning of the courses. (11) At the Kon-Kolodez Agricultural School, in May, on horticulture, gardening, apiculture, agriculture, cattle breeding, and natural history.

(12) At the Kokorozensk Agricultural School, in June, on apiculture, gardening, and entomology, and in September on viticulture, agriculture, and cattle breeding.

(13) At the Lubensk Agricultural School, on apiculture and dairy farming. (14) At the Odessa School Garden, from June 15 to July 15, on gardening and kitchen gardening.

Similar courses were to be held further at Ostaklov, Menzelinsk, Tiflis, Uralks, and at the Shubin-Wakhtinsk Farming School.

Besides the nineteen foregoing organized courses and lectures, the ministry of agriculture and Crown domains, in compliance with intercession made at the beginning of 1897, found it desirable to assist the establishing of similar courses at six other places.

W. A. Alexandrov, in his last pamphlet on the organization of courses for school gardens in 1896, says:

School gardens are very desirable institutions at public schools on pedagogical grounds, for emphasizing their scientific and educational features in a direction necessary for farmers' children. In school gardens consisting of nursery, orchard, kitchen garden, apiary, silkworm hatchery (in southern Russia), and an experimental plow field, and also on excursions made for the purpose of studying natural history and agriculture, the school-teachers could in a short time design a short and practical course of natural history as an introduction to agricultural education. The teacher, leading pupils to the desired end through investigations and experiments at the school garden and during excursions, is in a position to promote the conscious acquirement of knowledge, and consequently the development of the mind for an independent activity, and to give to the pupil a more serious view of his relations to natural objects and phenomena and to his own observations. For all children, and for peasants' children especially, it is necessary, first of all, to learn to observe, then to note what they observe, to classify their observations, in order to understand why and wherefore this or that happens, to deduce from these observations and experiments natural laws and fundamental principles, and thus to learn to examine deeper the surrounding objects. Besides, school gardens are very desirable for peasants' children from an educational point of view. In working together with the teacher, or separately at their sections in nurseries or kitchen gardens, at the trees in orchards, or at the beehives in apiaries, they get into the habit of working consciously and practicing economy in exploiting the gifts of nature.

In Russia there are 40 gardening organizations, of which 2 receive a permanent subsidy from the department of agriculture, and the majority receive pecuniary assistance from different sources, including gardening expositions. When in 1896 the department of agriculture had under consideration measures for the further development of fruit and kitchen gardening, it decided to collect from the gardening organizations of Russia their views and suggestions of measures which would be most expedient and well timed for the amelioration and development of this branch of agriculture, and issued requests to that effect addressed to the said organizations.

Up to the present time 35 societies have answered and presented reports containing valuable suggestions on the subject, which have been partly published in Izwiestia (Information), a journal published by the ministry of agriculture and Crown domains.

For much of the foregoing information the writer is under obligation to Mr. E. Kovalevski, a member of the scientific committee in the ministry of public instruction, who takes an interest in school gardens.

EXPLANATION OF THE SCHOOL-GARDEN PLAN.

A, A', A", paths 7 feet wide.

A"", paths 6 feet wide.

P, P', beds planted with seeds of vegetables, 42 inches wide.

B, bed planted with seeds of fruit trees, holes 11 inches apart.

C, D, grassy beds, with seedlings of pear and apple trees planted in checkerboard order, with

a distance of 14 inches between the rows and 3 inches between the trees.

The nursery is divided into six beds, E, F, G, H, J, and K.

E, seedlings transplanted in spring from beds C and D, where they have passed the preceding summer after being taken from the seed beds. In summer the apple and pear seedlings are grafted with a leaf bud.

F is allotted for yearlings.

G is allotted for 2-year-old trees.

H is allotted for 3-year-old trees.

J is allotted for 4-year-old trees.

K represents a fallow worked over again, manured with fresh manure in the spring (but which can be done in autumn), and planted generally with cabbages. The following year such a bed is planted with seedlings.

Each of the above-mentioned six beds has six rows: Three rows of apple trees, one of pear trees, one of plum trees, and one of cherry trees, and the rows are 28 inches apart. In each row are 21 trees, which are 14 inches distant one from the other.

L, L', beds planted with berry bushes 3 feet apart, and stone-fruit trees (cherries) 10 feet apart. The border along the path is set out with mentha.

R, kitchen garden, divided into three fields, with twenty-one low beds running parallel with path A. The width of the beds is 42 inches, the width of the intermediate furrows 14 inches. The first section of seven beds, fresh manured, is planted with cabbages; the seven beds of the second section are planted as follows: Three beds with cucumbers, one and one-half beds with carrots, one and one-half beds with radishes, one bed with turnips, rape, and parsnips. The seven beds in the third field, which are manured with ashes, are planted as follows: Three beds with turnips, two beds with beans and peas, and two beds with onions and garlic.

O, O', furrows between the beds, 14 inches wide.

Q, a hedge around the garden.

N, N', beds planted with cherry trees 10 feet apart, and, in the space between, gooseberry bushes 34 feet apart. The border along the path is set out with sage plants.

ORCHARD.

T, pear trees, and V, apple trees, are planted 21 feet apart, and alternated so as to let the broad-spreading apple trees extend their branches between the pear trees.

U, plum trees, planted 8 feet apart.

W, nut trees, mountain ash, box thorn (amelanchus), and Hippophæ rhamnoides, intermixed, 7 feet apart.

Y, four frame beehives.

S, S', raspberry bushes planted in rows.

Between the trees in the fruit gardens usually potatoes are planted.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND METHODS IN COREA.

Horace N. Allen, United States consul-general at Seoul, reports under date of July 12, 1898:

The education of Corean children is usually carried on at home. Several families may unite and employ a teacher, who will instruct the boys in the use of the Chinese character and in the principles of the Chinese classics. Well-to-do fathers usually provide their boys with a private tutor. Girls are not usually taught to read. Of late the publication of numerous papers, periodicals, and religious pamphlets in the native character called ernmoun is aiding in the spread of a knowledge of the Corean language, which is much easier to learn and more expressive than the cumbersome Chinese, which latter all officials must know, since the Chinese is used in all official documents.

I inclose a clipping from the Seoul Independent of July 5, relating to the general system of education now being followed in Corea. Through the kindness of the various foreign teachers, I am able to give an intelligent account of the work the foreign schools are doing.

In 1883 an English school was started in Seoul, under the care of an Englishman-T. E. Halifax. The school was kept running for a couple of years, but the chief work was done in the eight months prior to the bloody emeute of 1884. Most of the really first-class interpreters now in government employ were pupils in this school and got their knowledge of English during this period of eight months. The Coreans are very quick in acquiring a knowledge of foreign languages.

In 1886 a school was started in Seoul, under the charge of three teachers selected by the Department of the Interior at the request of the State Department of the United States, in accordance with repeated requests from the Corean Government. These gentlemen-Messrs. Gilmore, Hulburt, and Bunker-served in this capacity for varying periods till the school finally closed in 1894. Some of their former pupils now hold positions of trust and importance in the Corean Government. The school did good work in a small way, but did not accomplish what was expected of it, owing to great opposition from certain quarters to anything of the kind at the time.

The present favorable aspect of education in Corea really dates from the JapanChina war, and I shall mention the schools separately, using the information given me by the respective teachers.

AMERICAN METHODIST SCHOOL.

The mission of the American Methodist Church maintains a flourishing school, which was originally started in 1886 under the name of Pai Chai "Hall for Rearing Useful Men," a name conferred upon the school by His Majesty. Under an agreement made with the Corean Government in 1896, a certain number of pupils are placed in this school by the Government upon a compensation of $1 silver (50 cents gold) per month. The Government further pays for a native teacher for every 50 scholars. The course of study, discipline, etc., is entirely in the hands of the mission. Attendance at chapel and at Sunday service is compulsory. Beginning with an attendance of 50 in 1895, the school has now 103 pupils; and 176 were in attendance at the close of last year's term-June, 1897. Japanese and Chinese youths are also received at this school. The school has 2 foreign teachers and 4 native assistants, with 3 instructors in the Chinese character. A very highly appreciated course of lectures has been a prominent feature during the past two years, being delivered by native-born Coreans who have lived long abroad and become thoroughly familiar with matters that interest the outside world. No money is given to any of the pupils of this school except for services rendered. Poor boys are given employment in the mission printing press or bookbindery, and they thus learn a useful trade while helping themselves to a general education. A theological course was at one time furnished at this school, but it has been discontinued. The boys wear a uniform, and they have some drill in gymnastics and military tactics. One prominent feature of this school is the debating society, in which the boys have shown a remarkable aptitude for public speaking. From the course of study sent me by the principal, Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, I find that the preparatory course extends over three years. Reading, writing, and spelling are taught in the first year; geography, arithmetic, and composition in the second; and history, algebra, drawing, physiology, and a course in the New Testament in the third. This is followed by a regular college course, which is only arranged for, however, through the sophomore year.

NORMAL SCHOOL.

Seoul has another American school, taught by Rev. H. B. Hulburt, one of the three teachers sent from America in 1886. Mr. Hulburt's present school was started in 1897. It is meant to be a normal school for the drilling of native teachers, who may go out and take charge of primary schools for the people. It was the idea of the Government, in starting this school, to use the teachers prepared in it for establishing a regular system of public schools throughout the country.