would permit. They reduced the most important branch of agriculture, the economy of farming to a system; which system enables the farmer to devise plans for the management of farms, to select the best rotations, calculate the amount of labor, and produce that inost important result, "the most lasting and highest profit."

It was the practical knowledge which had been wanting, to enable the farmer to construct an effective machine, which increased its speed in proportion as the oil of science was added. Thus it was proved that neither science nor the thorough understanding of any single branch in agriculture (as breeding cattle or raising a fine crop) was enough to insure the ultimate object in view. For this, was required the knowledge of every branch, separately as well as collectively, the knowledge of calculating and securing combined results; how to estimate the cost of manure, and how to employ it to the highest advantage; to calculate the amount of cattle, the food and litter necessary to produce the required quantity of manure for the rotation adopted; and a number of like practical questions, which must be well understood by all those who wish to till the land with profit. A completer science showed that farming was more intricate than at first supposed; that it requires a regular study, like all other pursuits, and this led to the idea of establishing proper agricultural schools, wherein all the sciences which bear upon agriculture, and all the practical branches separately and in connection with others in a word, the economy of forming should be taught. The monarchis furnished estates and means; and in a few years several agricul tural schools were in operation.

The young men coming from such institutions were employed as professors for other schools, as directors for large estates; or they superintended their own property. They proved, practically, the advantages of such an education. Numbers of educated agriculturists impressed with the importance of a higher knowledge in the pursuit of farming operations, were anxious to assist in the promotion of the general welfare; they desired to diffuse, knowledge among their fellow farmers, and proposed meetings, like those of other scientific associations, where agriculturists from all parts of Germany might congregate, to deliberate upon important questions, state the mode pursued in different parts of Germany, and to devise plans for disseminating among the mass practical and theoretical skill, in that branch of human knowledge upon the results of which the welfare of nations so much depends.

The first such meeting was held at Dresden, in the year 1837. 1837. Princes, noblemen, men of science, the scientific as well as the plain farmer, assembled. The barrier of rank was thrown down; man met man; each spoke unrestrained, and debated the various questions proposed. The practical farmer found, in the nobleman, not only the scientific farmer, but one who supported his arguments with practical facts and numbers, and who took great interest in that pursuit, which was in former times, considered the exclusive occupation of the lower classes of society. This gave confidence to the farmer; he saw himself respected and considered; and he became impressed with the importance of a proper education for his business.

The next meeting which was held at Carlsruhe in Baden, saw the number of members doubled-two hundred and eighty-nine in attendance. Since that time the meetings are regularly held. Last year the assemblythe "Agricultural Convention" we should call it--was at Breslau, (I was present and of which I have given a full account) when the number of mem

bers amounted to nearly one thousand. In these meetings great attention was given to the subject of education. It was proposed, and discussed by a number of the members, to teach small children, in the public school of the country, besides the common branches of elementary education, the different manner of operation in horticulture and agriculture. For that purpose, it was considered necessary to give to each school Louse at least an acre of land, planted partly with fruit trees, and partly with leguminous and other agricultural plants; to show them the best mode of cultivating garden plants, and how to use the hoe and other implements; to instruct them in the best mode of budding and grafting, so that they might, ia the idle hours out of school, improve their orchards and garden plants; and, when more advanced in age, to explain and show them the different kinds of soil and their various properties, without entering into any scientific demonstrations; also, the different kinds of manure; the mode of collecting and preserving it; and in their lessons of arithmetic, to let them work out problems on some established fact relating to agriculture, that such problems might Decome impressed upon the plastic minds of the young. In their lessons of geography, it was advised to give them descriptions of the agricultural products and management of the farms in other countries; in teaching thera to write to let them copy subjects relating to agriculture, without overlooking those beautiful moral aphorisms so consoling in the hardships of life. This plan is already adopted, in some parts of Germany. There was no difficulty in obtaining the necessary ground for such schools; the great obstacle was to find teachers who were able to carry out this new mode of training which requires men of knowledge and discrimination, to give just what is needed, and no more.

It was found necessary, in institutions in which the teachers of public schools are educated, to make agriculture one of the regular branches of study, and to oblige the clergy to attend lectures on that all-important subject, in order that these pastors might be able to give advice, and encourage the farmer in this great undertaking, where it requires the co-operation of all the proprietors, as for instance in irrigation. The numerous agricultural societies are indefatigable in their exertions to furnish to such schools and similar institutions, seeds, books, implements, &c. Besides this the government does not lose sight of the improvement of horses and cattle; it furnishes blooded stallions, which are sent, in every season, regularly to certain stations of the country, for the gratuitous use of those who are engaged in breeding horses; bulls, rams, swine of the best breed, are raised on some public estate, and the offspring sold at low rates, or given at cost to the farmers, to introduce the breed.

A great many agricultural journals, periodicals, annuals and books, are published; every village keeps at least one weekly journal of that kind. The farmers, where they assemble on affairs of their village, thus read these journals, talk upon these subjects, and give their experience.

Besides this, there are, every year, in the various German states volkfesta (national festivals) when there is an exhibition of all sorts of agricultural products and domestic animals, machinery, plough matches, and horse.races. Fire-hail-and cattle insurance offices are founded. All these things cannot fail to produce great and beneficial results; and in many parts of Germany they are already perceptible.

The king of Wurtemberg, a true father to his country, has thus employed every possible means to promote the interest of the farmer; and the fruits of

his wise measures are visible in every part of his kingdom. The three-field system is improved and rich crops of clover spread over the fallow-fields; a superior kind of live stock enlivens the neat farm-yard; the roads are lined with fruit trees; every where progress is evident.

The small Duchy Nassau may be a pattern to any government in its system of schools for the education of the mass. Where is there a country that can boast such a thorough and efficient system for promoting agriculture? It began at the root, at the very point where all should begin, with the children of farmers, who left to themselves follow invariably the methods of their forefathers.

To effect first a change of the system, it was begun by the education of school teachers, viz:

1. The pupils of the institution for school teachers obtain theoretical instruction in natural history and agriculture. Practical instruction is also given them in horticulture and planting of hops and trees.

2. The school-master is himself a practical working superintendent of the garden attached to the school, and of the nursery of fruit trees belonging in common to the villages; he gives practical instruction in the culture of fruit trees, and to the girls, in the culture of vegetables and flowers.

3. In every village is a particular school, where the girls obtain instruction in spinning, knitting, sewing, mending cloth and linen; and in many places the boys are taught in different works in wood, straw, and willowbraiding.

4. Teachers or school mistresses, who distinguish themselves in imparting knowledge of industrial branches, obtain presents from the treasuries of the agricultural societies, which consist of books, tools and medals.

5. The girls who spin the best thread, obtain prizes, being generally handsome spinning-wheels; the boys are also entitled to prizes for various objects.

6. Those boys who have distinguished themselves are sent, at the age of sixteen or twenty years, for two winter courses, to the agricultural school; from two to three hundred have already been educated in that way.

7. For twenty-one years has existed, in Nassau, a weekly agricultural journal, which is published for the farmers, is mostly written by themselves; and has a great circulation among them and other persons interested in agriculture.

8. From the profits of that journal, has been purchased, in the vicinity of Wiesbaden, a small estate of ninety-two acres, for an experimental farm; where, by degrees, the different modes of culture are tried, which are thought suitable for the Grand Duchy of Nassau. They have now in operation five different rotations; meadow culture, nurseries for fruit trees, hop yards, vegetable gardens, and regular horticulture. The results of these various experiments are published in all the details.

9. The best farm in every court district is selected, as a model farm, provided the owner will meet the wishes of the society and introduce such a mode of culture as would best suit for that district.

10. For nineteen years past there has existed an agricultural society, the members of which are mostly farmers, owners of large and small farms, civil and military officers of various grades. The committees hold six meetings yearly in the different districts of that country, and one general meeting, where prizes are distributed for compositions in writing. At these, premiums are distributed to male and female servants, and laborers in vineyards in fruit and vegetable gardens, for good behaviour, or for superior order in work, &c.;

for fine horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and for the best management of bees; for introducing a new or better kind of manure or a better mode of preparing such, &c., &c. These prizes amount to from five hundred and sixty to six hundred and forty dollars annually.

11. The society is in possession of numbers of blooded breeding mares, which are distributed gratuitously among the members; in return for which they have to give the second and third fillies raised from each mare.

There is a pasture, where the fillies which are raised for breeding by the farmers of Nassau are gratuitously kept. The society has also an improved stock of cattle and sheep from which the villages receive bulls and

rams.

Since 1833, the government has appointed an officer who attends to all affairs concerning agriculture; he is at the same time director of the agricultural schools and experimental farms; secretary for life of the society, and editor of the Agricultural Journal and Annals of the Agricultural Society. The government councillor Albrecht, of the Grand Duchy of Nassau, at one of the meetings of German agriculturists, when the question of instructing children in public schools was discussed, observed that

"Since 1817, there had existed, in Nassau, an institution for school-teachers where all the branches of natural history and agriculture are taught, not with the view to educate the teachers as practical farmers, but to give those men who are destined to live among the farmers and charged with the education of children who will inherit the same occupation, a theoretical knowledge of agriculture, so that correct views on matters of agriculture might be diffused in common schools. I, myself, said he, have been for seventeen years in succession professor of agriculture, and my friend the medical councillor, lectured on natural history about as long as I did in the same institution. We both can give the assurance that those young men whom we educated for teaching were mostly sons of farmers, who had obtained no other instruction than that of the village school; that they listened to our lectures with undivided attention, and with great advantage; that they proved this when they obtained situations as teachers; for they disseminated correct views and awakened a love of agricultural knowledge among the children. To this may be ascribed the fact, that the greatest number of pupils at the agricultural school at Idstein, from 1818 to 1833, and at Wiesbaden from 1834 to 1843, came from those schools where our pupils laid the germs of that knowledge; and it grows vigorously.

These comprehended the more scientific branches of natural history and agriculture with much more readiness, and in their practical career applied them with more judgment and advantage than the sons of proprietors of large estates and better education. We found, by experience, that young men who have not enjoyed a scientific education, are, nevertheless, capable of understanding a scientific lecture, and able to follow the road pointed out

to them.

This I mention, in order to show that young men from the country, with a limited education, are, without a scientific or collegiate training, capable of a higher degree of culture in the art of husbandry.

The various exertions, by societies and governments, to enlighten the mass, cannot fail ultimately to produce this desirable result-that the mass will eradicate that pernicious weed which impedes every progress in regard to liberal institutions; and when all the roots of the feudal system are destroyed, the German farmers will form one of the happiest classes of men in the civilized world.

XVIII.-Biennial and Three field system of Germany.

Biennial system on the Rhine.-I have spoken of the plains and hills, covered with fields weighed down by heavy crops; fields which have been thousands of years under cultivation, without refusing the industrious laborer a rich harvest. To the practised agriculturist, such a sight is highly interesting, and, as a matter of course, he will ask, What is the principal mode of culture, the usual rotation of crops?

And he will be astonished to hear, in this enlightened age, that the fallow, or three field system, is still in use in two-thirds of Germany. Yes, this barbarous system, the sign of darkness and ignorance, (as some great book agriculturists have named it,) is, notwithstanding all the abuse heaped upon it, the very system which has saved Germany and all those countries where it exists or has existed, from that utter exhaustion of the soil, which would have ensued there, as in those countries where the barbarous practice is followed of planting corn after corn, tobacco after tobacco, until the generous soil sinks, as if feebly making its last effort, into a state of exhaustion, such as only long repose and careful nursing can retrieve. It is due, then; to the fallow system, that the soil of the old countries remains in a state of fertility, which will enable it to produce good harvests for ever, if the usual care is bestowed upon it.

In the thickly peopled parts of Germany, as on the Rhine, we find the biennial, the four field system, and the extensive rotation of crops, and in the mountains and plains of the north, the alternate system of grain and grass, according to the climate and wants of the people.

In those parts of Germany, where the feudal systmes have been partly abolished, where the division of property, or other obstacles have allowed it, the three field system is in an improved state, and the naked fallow is covered with a thick crop of clover or other fallow crops. The benefits of a judicious rotation of fallow crops is well understood in some parts of Germany; and we must not, in the common style of writers upon Germany, break out upon the ignorance, obstinacy and barbarism of the farmers who have not yet adopted the scientific method, a method of producing straw and very little grain, as we see in some parts of England, and as Arthur Young mentions in his reports to the board of agriculture, where he gives some of the rotations practised in England, as a proof of "barbarous ignorance." He says, for instance, "fallow; wheat; wheat; barley; barley; oats; oats; oats; and oats as long as the soil will bear it." It seems that the ancients were impressed with the idea, that the soil, as well as man, requires rest; that neither the human frame nor the lifeless soil can exist continually without it, they soon lose then their strength, unless due repose be given them. Fallow was considered to be the night rest for the soil, the production of grain its day work.

Virgil and Columella recommend the alternation of fallow and wheat, as the only way to keep the soil vigorous and productive. A like two-field system we find in use in England, in the south of France, and along the Rhine. Was it brought thither by the Romans, to whom we ascribe every thing which has the least indication of good sense? Or did the native sagacity of each country direct it to the same idea, that the soil must have rest? This we leave to the learned to decide; and we content ourselves with the fact, that the two-field system is still in use, in some parts, on the Rhine or the Moselle. Before that region was so populous; while conse