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The school is provided with laboratories, a museum, a wine cellar, vineyards, a fruit orchard, an experimental farm, and two libraries. Its territory covers 73 acres, divided into plots, as follows: Buildings, 13 acres; park, 8 acres; vineyard, 37 acres; fruit orchard, 8 acres; truck garden, 1.3 acres; tree school, 0.7 acre; and waste land, 5 acres. The value of the school property was estimated in 1911 at 327,122 rubles, including the land, which was valued at 13,002 rubles. OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGHER AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Graduates of secondary agricultural schools may continue their education in higher agricultural schools, where they are accepted without examination. Whenever, owing to an unusual influx of candidates, there is an entrance examination, the graduates of agricultural schools are given preference over the graduates of other secondary schools.

Graduates of the Viticultural School are given an opportunity to continue studies in their special branch by entering the higher viticultural courses in Yalta, Crimea.

The agricultural education act of 1904 gives the agricultural students certain privileges relating to military service. They are permitted to continue their studies after they have passed the age of conscription, which is 21 years, until the completion of the school program, but not after 24 years of age.

RECENT OPINIONS REGARDING AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.

Complaint has been made in Russia that the agricultural school has failed to accomplish its original purpose-to educate the peasant class in progressive methods of farming. It has been charged that the schools are filled mostly with the children of nonagricultural classes, and that, instead of applying the knowledge acquired in improving native farming, these students, or at least a majority of them, later engage in other pursuits in no way connected with agriculture. Hence some doubt has been aroused regarding the advisability of burdening the State and local communities any longer with heavy expenditures for agricultural education for children who would receive as much benefit from general schools and at less expense.

Similar complaints were heard in other European countries, as well as in the United States, during the experimental stage of this movement. They reached an acute stage in Russia in 1908, when certain statesmen and educators went so far as to advise that the schools be closed unless some way of improving conditions was found. As a consequence of this agitation D. M. Bodisko was delegated by the ministry of agriculture and imperial domains to investigate the ag

ricultural schools. After his tour of investigation he submitted a report, in which he said:1

It is evident that there are deficiencies in the management of agricultural schools. The common people-the peasants-do not go to school, consequently the institutions of learning are filled by half-educated persons, who swarm in to take advantage of free tuition and to receive diplomas.

Formerly these students filled, to some extent, positions on large estates. But at the present time, when the large estates are on the verge of extinction, the graduates of agricultural schools try to engage in other occupations that have nothing in common with agriculture.

Even the primary agricultural schools were, in the opinion of Mr. Bodisko, far from successful in peasant education. The most important obstacle with which these schools had to cope was the custom of the peasants to use their children for farm work in the summer. Naturally, this prevented their attendance at school during the most useful period.

Notwithstanding these conditions, this expert investigator

declared:

The State can not do without good agricultural schools and without practical teaching of agriculture. Such schools will, for a long time, be insufficient to meet the needs of the peasant class and the quotas of students will be composed of various nonagricultural classes. While it is true that these students will never work their own farms, still, in one way or another, they will disseminate agricultural science among the people.

More recent discussions and reports show that doubts of the actual value of agricultural schools were more in the nature of transient disappointment than of serious dissatisfaction. The view of Mr. Bodisko that these schools, notwithstanding their defects, will for a long time to come "disseminate agricultural science among the people in one way or another" has been shared by the Russian authorities in charge of the work. This is indicated by the fact that the number of agricultural schools increased from 213 at the time of the investigation to 281 in 1912.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

[All publications enumerated below are in the Russian language. Their titles are given in English translation for the convenience of the reader. The titles marked with an asterisk (*) are of books included in the Library of Congress collection. Those without any mark are in the Library of the Bureau of Education.]

Agricultural School of Kazan.

Report, 1900. Kazan, 1901. 139 p. 8°. Agricultural School of Moscow. Report for the school year 1908-9. Moscow, 1910. 35 p. 8°. (Accompanied by statistical tables, 51 p.)

An extract from the report upon the condition and activities of educational institutions of Gorki. 1907. Gorki, n. d. 145 p. 8°.

1 Collection of data on agricultural education, 11th issue.

* General office of land management and agriculture. Department of agriculture. A collection of data pertaining to agricultural education. Lower winter schools of agriculture and farm management in Germany. By W. A. Begetov. 5th issue. St. Petersburg, 1900. vi, 162 p. 8°.

Agricultural educational institutions. Data up to January 1, 1903. 8th issue. St. Petersburg, 1905. 308+90 p. 8°.

Material relating to the condition of experimental farms in connection with some lower agricultural schools. 11th issue. St. Petersburg, 1908. 64 p. 8°.

Statutes relating to agricultural education in force to 1908 inclusive. 14th issue. St. Petersburg, 1909. xxiii, 436 p. 8°.

Regulations regarding agricultural schools in force to

1910. 15th issue. St. Petersburg, 1910. 797 p. 8°.

Agricultural educational institutions in 1910. 16th

issue. St. Petersburg, 1911. xxvii, 395 p. 8°.

Yearbook, 1907. St. Petersburg, 1908. lix, 837 p. 8°. (For

departments of agriculture and forestry.)

Kharkoff Agricultural School. Data concerning the establishment of, and subsequent reforms in, pedagogical courses for lower agricultural schools. Report, 1909-1910. Kharkoff, 1912. 87 p. 8°.

Kherson Agricultural School of Emperor Alexander II. Report, 1911. [Kherson, 1912?] 75+37 p. 8°.

Ministry of public instruction. Report for the year 1912. Petrograd, 1915. xiii, 251 p. 8°.

Secondary Agricultural School of the Don. Report, 1909. Novotcherkassk, 1911. 123 p. 8°.

Aside from the above enumerated original sources, some standard statistical publications were consulted in preparing this work, such as: Statesman's Year Book, 1915; Russian Year Book, 1914; etc.

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