charge of the elder ones, and are under the general superintendence of the overseer. The same superintendence exists in the refectory and dormitories. It subserves the double purpose of economy, and of training the elder pupils in the management of men, which is one object of their education. The institution undertakes to find places for those pupils who have given satisfaction while in the school, on their completing its courses.

The agricultural course of the higher school may be accomplished in one year, if the preliminary studies of the pupil have been directed with a view to his entering, but in general it requires two years. The same period of two years is required for that of forestry. Each scholastic year has two sessions, the one from the first of November to Palm-Sunday, and the other from two weeks after Palm-Sunday to the first of October. The intermediate periods are vacations. The branches of special theoretical instruction are as follows:

First: Agriculture. General principles of farming and horticulture, including the culture of the vine. The breeding of cattle. Growing of wool, Raising of horses. Rearing of silkworms. Arrangement and direction of farms. Estimation of the value of farms. Bookkeeping

Second: Forestry. Encyclopedia of Forestry. Botany of forests. Culture and superintendence of forests. Guard of forests. Hunting. Taxation. Uses of forests. Technology. Laws and regulations, accounts, and technical correspondence relating to forests.

Third: Accessory branches. Veterinary art. Agriculture technology, especially the manufacture of beet sugar, brewing, vinegar making, and distilling. The construction of roads and hydraulic works.

Besides these special branches, the following general courses are pursued:

First: The Natural Sciences. Geology. Physiology of plants. Botany, as applied to ag. riculture and forestry. Natural history of animals beneficial or noxious to plants and trees. General chemistry, and its applications to agriculture. Physics and meteorology.

Second: Mathematics. Theoretical and practical. Geometry. Elements of trigonometry. Arithmetic. Elements of algebra.

The institution possesses the most ample means for the illustration of these courses in its farm and collections. The farm is divided into arable land, about five hundred and one acres; meadow land, two hundred and forty-two acres ; fields set apart for experiments, thirty-three acres; woodland, thirteen acres; nursery, sixty-seven acres; plantation of hops, two acres; botanical garden, fourteen acres; ground for exercising the pupils in ploughing, two acres; garden, one acre; the remainder eighty-five acres. Total, nine hundred and sixty acres. The arable land is cultivated according to five different rotations of crops, that the pupils may have specimens of the varieties of system. The botanical garden, nursery, and experimental farm, are prominent parts of the establishment. There is a large stock of cattle of different kinds, foreign and domestic, and of sheep, that the pupils may acquire practical knowledge of the relative advantages of different breeds, the mode of taking care of the stock generally, and of rearing them for different purposes. Horses are kept for a riding-school, as well as for the purposes of the farm. The institution has a large collection of agricultural implements in use in Wirtemberg, and of models of the varieties of foreign and new implements. These are made in a workshop attached to the school, and afford practice in the manufacture to the pupils, as well as instruction by their use or inspection, with the explanations of the professors. The sale of these implements and models also contributes to the support of the establishment. There are two collections of seeds and grain-one as specimens for illustrating the lectures, the other in quantities for sale. The pupils learn the mode of preserving them, and useful seeds are distributed through the country. There is a collection of soils of all kinds for the lecturers on terra-culture and the analysis of soils, with specimens of the means of amelioration used in different cases. The collections of natural history, though small, are interesting, from the precise adaptation of the specimens to the objects of the school. They consist of birds, beasts, and insects, and of plants, woods, and rocks. The woods are arranged in the form of a library, the separate specimens having the forms of books given to them, and being covered in part with the bark. The name is inscribed upon the back. Cross and longitudinal sections are usually found in the same book, forming the covers. Between the covers is a box containing the seeds and flowers of the tree, the parasites, &c., and a description. There is a small collection of physi

cal apparatus, a library, and a laboratory. The following farming and technological establishments are connected with the school, and worked by the pupils, under the charge of the teachers: namely, a cider-press and appurtenances; a beetsugar manufactory, a brewery, a distillery, and a vinegar manufactory. Though I saw better individual collections than these, the whole suite stands unrivaled, as far as my examination extended.

Examination takes place every year, which are obligatory upon those forestry pupils who intend to enter the service of the government; strangers are not required to be examined. Persons wishing to learn the details of the institution, may be received as visitors for a period not exceeding a month, living with the pupils.

Each pupil in the higher school has his own sleeping-room; or, at most, two room together. They bring their supplies of clothing, &c., at entrance. The rooms are kept in order by the servants, who receive a small compensation from the pupil. They take their dinner and supper in a common hall, and order what they please for breakfast from the stewart's assistant.* This institution has supported itself for several years, which is readily to be understood from the scale of its farming operations. The success of the farm does not depend exclusively upon the productive manual labor of the pupils. It is analogous to the support of a family on a large estate, the members of the family aiding in the work, and contributing also in money to their own support, but the working of the farm not depending entirely upon their manual exertions.

* The dinner and supper cost four dollars a month, which is paid in advance to the

steward.

NORMAL SCHOOLS

IN

HESSE-CASSEL, AND NASSAU.

THE Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, with a population of 750,000 inhabiants, has three seminaries for teachers, viz.: at Fulda, Homberg and Schluchtern.

The course of instruction embraces three years, and each seminary receives sixty pupils, who are divided into two classes. The division of time and allotment of studies in one of the best of these seminaries in the summer of 1839, may be seen on the opposite page.

NASSAU.

The Duchy of Nassau, with a population of 420,000, supports one Teachers' Seminary at Idstein, which in 1846 had 154 pupils. The course lasts five years, four of which are devoted to a regular course of instruction in a thorough review of the studies pursued in the elementary schools and the acquisition of studies which facilitate and illustrate the teaching of the former, and the fifth, exclusively to the principles and practice of education. Pupils are admitted at the age of fourteen years. The library of the institution is free to teachers in any part of the Duchy, and the books are forwarded and returned by the government post without charge. In 1836 the government expended 3,596 thalers toward the expenses of board and lodging of the pupils.

HANOVER.

The Kingdom of Hanover, with a population of 1,790,000, supports seven Teachers' Seminaries. One of these, established in 1848, is devoted to the education of Jewish teachers. The course embraces three years, and, in addition to the studies and exercises embraced in the seminaries for Protestant and Catholic teachers, includes the study of Hebrew, the Old Testament, and the commentaries of Hebrew scholars on the same. This is a practical religious toleration beyond any thing seen in the rest of Europe. One of the seminaries is designated as the Chief Seminary, and receives as pupils only those who have already taught school.

The practice of "boarding round," which constitutes one of the distinguishing marks of a bad state of public education, still prevails to some extent in Hanover. "I confess with shame," said a Director of a Teachers' Seminary in Hanover, to Professor Stephens, now of Girard College of Orphans, "that this relic of barbarism may still be seen in a few villages of the kingdom, but it must soon vanish before the light which a welleducated class of teachers is diffusing among the people." This "relic of barbarism," necessarily disappears, where the business of teaching becomes a profession, and the teacher becomes permanently employed in the same place.

MECKLENBURG SCHWERIN.

The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin, with a population of 515,000, supports two seminaries, viz.: at Ludwigslust, and Rostock. The last is in connection with the University, and embraces a course of three months for students of Theology, who wish to be appointed temporarily to situations as teachers.