and multiply it by 5, and then the average of the marks obtained as a result of practical tests at the end of the course and multiply it by 2. Add the three products thus obtained and divide the sum by 10 and the quotient will show the standing of the pupil. If he has obtained 11 (for first year) or 12 (for second year), the student is promoted. For students of the third year (or fifth session) the average of the marks for the examinations and tests during the year is multiplied by 2, while the average of the practical tests of the final examination is multiplied by 3, the other features remaining the same. The standing of the graduating pupils is thus fixed up: The standing of the first year is multiplied by 3, that of the second year by 3, that of the third year (one-half year) is multiplied by 4; the products are added and then divided by 4. If the final average is 13, the diploma of the school is given.' NUMBER OF CHAIRS. Comparison of the "courses" in the French national schools of agriculture. (The professors are assisted by préparateurs-répetiteur, a bilateral individual—coach and teacher.) a It is possible to say that the term zootechnie is "applied" comparative anatomy. It is apparent that these curriculums above given are more specialized as one reads the columns from left to right. In fact, the Grand Jouan College is influenced by the idea of an extensive farming such, perhaps, as is necessary in breaking up new land and reducing it to an agricultural state until it approaches the tilth of a garden. Its instruction is, therefore, more condensed than] that of the Grignon College, where much more stress is put on botany and chemistry as becomes an institution championing the intensive farming idea, while the Montpellier College, situated in the wine-making and silk-growing portion of France, has a complete course for grape growing (viticulture), for silkworm raising (sericulture), and for wine making, etc. (technologie). In the same way it might be expected that the American colleges in California and Florida might strive to make specialists in "agrestrian arboriculture," or as the Floridians say, "grove culture," while in Kentucky and Virginia tobacco growing and its industrial preparation might be the bias of the college, and in Alabama and Mississippi cotton, and in Louisiana sugar might be matters that the States concerned would find it advantageous to push in the institutions that have been endowed by the Republic. We see that each French college has from six to twelve courses, but that one of these, namely, the course in agriculture, comes first in every case; for, though the Montpellier College includes under agriculture the cultivation of the mulberry 1 The college at Grignon is taken to illustrate this feature of the French system. M. Philippar is director of this college, and M. Dehérain, the author of the well-known Cours de Chémie Agricole, is professor of chemistry. and olive tree, whicn of course are not commonly regarded as vegetables, as they occupy the ground for many years, yet it should be remembered that a bed of asparagus (certainly a vegetable) is said to be capable of lasting twenty years if well prepared. Let us, then, take the course of agriculture in each of these colleges and compare them with each other and then with the other parts of the curriculum. THE OBJECT OF THE AGRICULTURAL COURSE. The Grand Jouan College' under the agricultural course comprises the study of (1) the vegetable soil-that is to say, the agricultural workshop (l'atélier agricole); (2) fertilizing matters-that is to say, the food of plants; (3) work of the fields (the handling and use of agricultural tools); (4) the most useful plants, and (5) rotation of crops. Although this instruction has reference more particularly to the regions of the west and center, it never loses its broad and general character. Nevertheless, over 100,000 acres of the "department" in which the school is situated are waste lands, and it is said by the technical secretary of the national agricultural society of France that the system of culture is as yet semipastoral, though, thanks to the efforts of M. Rieffel, the founder of the Grand Jouan College, a "considerable step" in advance has been made. Leaving the upland prairies of the coast for the environment of Paris, we find the management of the school of Grignon striking a different note. Here is what is said in the annuaire for 1893: "Grignon desires to give young men who wish to become agriculturists the sum total of those scientific and practical ideas which are recognized as indispensable for good cultivation of the soil; to turn out men who will know the researches of agricultural industry and its conditions of existence; men capable of choosing, selecting, and applying different methods; men who join to a knowledge of economic science a profound knowledge of the technical details of the profession of agriculture; men, finally, who shall either on their own exploitations in the councils of the country, or in the professional chair, be able at need to successfully develop the principles and facts which shall clear up hazy discussions which disturb agricultural interests." Here we evidently have a school of agricultural politics or statesmanship. The College of Montpellier owes its foundation to the wine makers of France and its importance to a native of America, the phylloxera. "The début of the school was not very satisfactory, for the viticulturists of southern France, justly proud of the results they had accomplished by an intelligent management of their business, had no particular use for a school. But very soon-following the arrival of the phylloxera-the aspect of things changed.” Here we have a school for forming agricultural specialists or scientific police, or physicians, especially necessary for a certain class of vegetables, such as grapevines and fruit trees, whose lease of life and whose unproductive period from seed to bearing are long. Grand Jouan. 1. The vegetable soil. 2 It will be interesting to compare the mere outline of the above course in agriculture with the outline of our own institutions. Some years ago the American Agriculturist referred to our agricultural colleges as not having succeeded very well, with two exceptions-one in the East and one in the West. Possibly what may have been true long before the act of August 30, 1890, is not true to-day, but as Loth the colleges excepted have by no means retrograded during the interval that has elapsed they may be taken as examples of the most successful institutions of their kind. We will take the Grand Jouan College to represent the French curriculum: ED 96-40* |