higher, but which happens to be less severely scourged, several hundred pounds would be required; for, in improving an impoverished farm, large sums of money will be expended without making any striking change in its appearance, or without immediately yielding a profit to the improver.-Morton's Rich Farming.

MODEL FARM AND AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AT GLASNEVIN.

The Agricultural Department of the Commissioners of National Education at Glasnevin, consists of a Model Farm of 128 acres, with appropriate buildings, a Model Kitchen Garden, and Nursery of fruit and forest trees, shrubs, &c., and an Industrial School. The pupils are selected by the Commissioners from the most talented and deserving young men in the various agricultural schools in different parts of Ireland; and the number for the present is limited to fifty.

The success of this great establishment in gradually diffusing over Ireland a knowledge of better methods of farming and gardening, is fully attested in the extracts which follow.

President Hitchcock in a "Report concerning an Agricultural School" to the Legislature of Massachusetts, remarks:

"This institution was established in 1838, and its grand object is to train up teachers for other schools, several hundreds of whom have already been sent out, and are spreading the knowledge here gained in other parts of Ireland. The present number of pupils is about fifty; but buildings are now in course of erection for one hundred. The pupils receive literary as well as agricultural instruction. The principal lectures are on practical as well as theoretic agriculture. The mornings as well as the evenings are devoted to study, but a large part of the day to labor. Most of the pupils, I should think, are above twenty years of age. It was vacation when I visited, yet some thirty or forty had remained to work on the farm, and I very thankfully accepted an invitation to listen to an examination of the young men in the studies they had been taught. More than twenty cheerfully came in from the field, and without changing their dress, passed a very creditable examination upon the various principles of practical and theoretical agriculture, in connection with its associated sciences. I am sure that they can not carry abroad such principles as they here presented without doing immense benefit to impoverished Ireland.

On the farm the principles taught in the school are practically illustrated. I walked over the fields, and have never, in any country, seen crops as fine, taken as a whole, of wheat, oats, beans, flax, and potatoes. The oats would probably yield eighty bushels to the acre, and the potatoes bid fair to produce seven hundred bushels, the disease having not then shown itself. The pupils have access to a good agricultural library, but I saw no collections in Natural History, nor in any other department, indeed. The place, however, being only three miles from Dublin, the pupils can resort thither for instruction in Natural History, and the inspection of specimens. There is a museum of economic geology there, which will, ere long, afford great facilities to pupils. If they can succeed in extending the skill and productiveness exhibited in this Model Farm, throughout Ireland, I am confident we should hear no more of her population as starving."

Mr. Donaghy, in his Report on the Glasnevin Farm in 1852, makes the following judicious remarks on the educational workings of this establishment.

So far as the numbers in attendance at the establishment may be considered as indicative of its continued prosperity, nothing, under the circumstances, can be more satisfactory; and coupling with this the very favorable testimony left on record regarding it by the numerous visitors who have inspected its operations throughout the year, we have every reason to be satisfied that its usefulness is becoming gradually more developed, and its agency, in effecting an improvement

in our present agricultural management, better appreciated by all who take an interest in the real welfare of the country.

Viewing the establishment, then, as an engine whereby extensive knowledge on improved agricultural practice is organized and disseminated throughout the different parts of the country-more particularly amongst those classes of the community whose circumstances debar them from acquiring such information otherwiseit recommends itself to the countenance and support of every true friend of Ireland, as an institution by means of which the amelioration of the different classes of the people, who come within the sphere of its influence, can be, so far as other external circumstances permit, ultimately effected. This it is capable of accomplishing, and that, too," without money and without price," on the part, at least, of the recipients of its benefits.

I need scarcely say that it would afford me, as I doubt not it would you, much gratification were I able to state that the Glasnevin Model Farm establishment is a self-supporting institution. But this it neither is, nor can be, under existing circumstances. And it is very problematical, indeed, whether or not, if it were such, it would be capable of accomplishing even a tithe of the good which it is at present effecting. Common sense will point out to any man fit to exercise a sound judg ment, that no agricultural educational establishment in the world, having a limited quantity of land attached to it, would be able, from the sale of its produce, to board, lodge, educate, wash for, pay the traveling expenses of, afford 18. 6d. per week, to an indefinite number of free pupils, and, at the same time, return a profit to the manager. In any self-supporting institution, a certain ratio must exist between the number of pupils boarded free of expense, and the extent and quality of the land cultivated; else no result in the shape of a money profit can be realized, as may easily be perceived by conceiving that there may be a larger number of pupils in attendance as in our own case-than the entire produce of the farm would be capable of maintaining. But though a money profit is desirable, if it can at all be produced, I would ask, is a money profit, in reference to the affairs of an institution such as this, the proper test whereby to judge of its utility and efficiency? Most decidedly it is not. The amount of good effected by the operations of a public institution, constitutes, for the most part, the sole and only element of profit derivable from the expenditure attendant upon its management. Does the state expect a direct money profit from the expenditure of the funds set apart for the support of the Queen's Colleges? No; but from the application of those funds a more important result is expected the education of all who can conscientiously avail themselves of the privileges thus afforded to them. Further, do the Commissioners of education contemplate that a money profit should emanate from the outlay consequent upon the efficient working of the Marlborough street schools? No; the object in view in this, as in the other case, is identically the same-the conferring of a great boon upon the lower ranks of the people, in the form of a good, useful, and liberal education. Well, in what does the Glasnevin Model Farm establishment differ from the cases just adduced? Is it not also an educational establishment, giving valuable gratuitous instruction to the sons of the small farmers, not only in the science and practice of husbandry, but also in general literary knowledge-matters of vital importance to the country, and of course attended with extra expense as compared with an ordinary agricultural establishment? The objects in view in each case, therefore. are precisely similar-the affording of extensive gratuitous advantages to promote the educational and social interests of Ireland out of the funds of the State--objects which the Glasnevin Model Farm establishment have promoted, is promoting, and, I should hope, will promote. A money profit therefore, is not the proper criterion whereby to judge of its usefulness. If so, such should also be the case in reference to the others.

But whilst the Glasnevin Model Farm establishment, with its 128 acres attached, is admirably calculated, from its proximity to the city of Dublin, for affording to the Commissioners of education the greatest possible facility for carrying out their views extensively, as regards the dissemination of agricultural knowledge, the high rent which they have been obliged to pay for the land (£5 per statute acre for one part of it, and 4 guineas per acre for the other,) in consequence, amongst other matters, of the enjoyment of this advantage; the outlay for permanent improvements required to be effected; the high charge for implements and repairs in the

locality; the amount of outlay for toll, cess, and other taxes; and the cost attendant upon the purchase and keeping in proper repair the different sets of implements for so many pupils, place it almost beyond the power of human exertion, under existing prices, to show a favorable balance sheet.

But is the fact to be altogether overlooked in forming an estimate of the results of the working of this establishment, that the Commissioners of education are able from their arrangements, as regards the locality of the farm, not only to train a class of agricultural pupils-at present 50-immediately upon it, but also to take advantage of the services of their agriculturist in delivering two courses of agricultural lectures in the year to about 200 of their schoolmasters when they are in training at their Model Schools in Dublin? And still further to enhance the value of the information which these men thus receive in the lecture-room, they are called upon by the board to visit the Model Farm once in the week, where an explanation is given to them of the courses of cropping followed, the mode of performing the different farming operations, and, in short, of the entire management pursued. Could these advantages be obtained if their principal agricultural department was situated at a considerable distance from their literary training department, without incurring much more trouble and expenditure than at present? The truth is, by this very arrangement-the proximity of the agricultural establishment to the literary training department-the Commissioners of education have been able to take the lead of all the educational institutions in Great Britain as regards the dissemination of agricultural information. Why has Scotland been heretofore unable to carry out agricultural education in connection with her present existing school system, notwithstanding an expressed desire on the part of some of her most enlightened men to effect this object? Simply, because she has no central agricultural training department in connection with one or other of her normal seminaries, at which her teachers could acquire, in addition to their other branches of education, a knowledge of agricultural science and practice. I would respectfully submit, therefore, that in forming an estimate of our transactions, throughout the year, the real and substantial advantages derived by the country from the working of the establishment should receive due consideration.

The following notice of the Model Farm at Glasnevin, where the Normal pupils are required to take practical lessons in agriculture, is taken from Colman's " European Agriculture and Rural Economy.”

"It is considered (by the Commissioners of National Education) and with good reason, that the great want, among the people, is a want of knowledge in applying and using the means of subsistence within their reach; that there is no indisposition on their part to labor; that there is as yet an ample extent of uncultivated land capable of being redeemed and rendered productive; and that a principal source of the wretchedness, and want, and starvation, which prevail in some parts of this country, often to a fearful extent, is attributable to the gross ignorance of the laboring classes of the best modes of agriculture and of rural economy. With this conviction upon their minds, the commissioners have determined to connect with all their rural schools a course of teaching in scientific and practical agriculture, communicating a knowledge of the simple elements of agricultural chemistry; of the best modes and operations of husbandry which have been adopted in any country; of the nature, and character, and uses, of the vegetables and plants necessary or useful to man or beast; of the improved kinds of live stock, and of the construction and use of the most improved and most approved farming implements and machinery. With these views, it is their intention to train their schoolmasters, and to send out such men as are apt and qualified to teach these most useful branches. For this purpose the government have established this model farm, which was begun in 1838, and which has already, in a greater or less measure, qualified and sent out seven hundred teachers. To my mind it seems destined to confer the most important benefits upon Ireland, and I may add upon the world; for so it hap

pens under the benignant arrangements of the Divine Providence, the benefits of every good measure or effort for the improvement of mankind proceed, by a sort of reduplication, to an unlimited extent; these teachers shall instruct their pupils, and these pupils become in their turn the teachers of others; and the good seed, thus sown and widely scattered, go on yielding its constantly-increas ing products, to an extent which no human imagination can measure. Three thousand schoolmasters are at this moment demanded for Ireland, and the government are determined to supply them. Happy is it for a country, and honorable to human nature, when, instead of schemes of avarice, and dreams of ambition, and visions of conquest, at the dreadful expense of the comfort, and liberty, and lives, of the powerless and unprotected, the attention of those who hold the destinies of their fellow-beings in their hands is turned to their improvement, their elevation, their comfort, and their substantial welfare.

The Model Farm and Agricultural School is at a place called Glasnevin, about three miles from Dublin, on a good soil. The situation is elevated and salubrious, embracing a wide extent of prospect of sea and land, of plain and mountain, of city and country, combining the busy haunts of men, and the highest improvements of art and science, with what is most picturesque and charming in rural scenery, presenting itself in its bold mountains and deep glens, in its beautiful plantations, its cultivated fields, and its wide and glittering expanse of ocean. The scenery in the neighborhood of Dublin, with its fertile valleys, and the mountains of Wicklow, of singularly grand and beautiful formatiop, bounding the prospect for a considerable extent, is among the richest which the eye can take in; and at the going down of the sun in a fine summer evening, when the long ridge of the mountains seemed bordered with a fringe of golden fire, it carried my imagination back, with an emotion which those only who feel it can understand, to the most beautiful and picturesque parts of Vermont, in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain. I have a strong conviction of the powerful and beneficial influence of fine natural scenery, where there is a due measure of the endowment of ideality, upon the intellectual and moral character; and I would, if possible, surround a place of education with those objects in nature best suited to elevate and enlarge the mind, and stir the soul of man from its lowest depths. It is at the shrine of nature, in the temple pillared by the lofty mountains, and whose glowing arches are resplendent with inextinguishable fires, that the human heart is most profoundly impressed with the unutterable grandeur of the great object of worship. It is in fields radiant with their golden harvests, and every where offering, in their rich fruits and products, an unstinted compensation to human toil, and the most liberal provisions for human subsistence and comfort, and in pastures and groves animated with the expressive tokens of enjoyment, and vocal with the grateful hymns of ecstacy, among the animal creation, that man gathers up those evidences of the faithful, unceasing, and unbounded goodness of the Divine Providence, which most deeply touch, and often overwhelm the heart. The Model Farm and School, at Glasnevin, has connected with it fifty-two English acres of land, the whole of which, with the exception of an acre occupied by the farm buildings, is under cultivation, and a perfect system of rotation of crops. The mas ter of the school pays for this land a rent of five pounds per acre, and taxes and expenses carry the rent to eight pounds per acre. Twelve poor boys, or lads, live constantly with him, for whose education and board, besides their labor, he receives eight shillings sterling per week. They work, as well as I could understand, about six hours a day, and devote the rest of the time to study, or learning. The course of studies is not extensive, but embraces the most common and useful branches of education, such as arithmetic, geography, natural philosophy, and agriculture, in all its scientific and practical details. They have an agricultural examination, or lecture, every day. I had the gratification of listening to an examination of fourteen of these young men, brought out of the field from their labor; and cheerfully admit that it was eminently successful, and in the highest degree ereditable bath to master and pupil. Besides these young men, who live on the farm, the young men in Dublin, at the Nor mal School, who are preparing themselves for teachers of the national schools, are required to attend at the farm and assist in its labors a portion of the time, that they may become thoroughly acquainted with scientific and practical agri. culture in all its branches, and be able to teach it; the government being determined that it shall form an indispensable part of the school instruction through

out the island. The great objects, then, of the establishment, are to qualify these young men for teachers by a thorough and practical education in the science, so far as it has reached that character, and in the most improved methods and operations of agriculture. Besides this, it is intended to furnish an opportunity to the sons of men of wealth, who may be placed here as pupils, to acquire a practical knowledge of, and a familiar insight into, all the details of farming. This must prove of the highest importance to them in the management of their own estates."

LIST OF LECTURES AT GLASNEVIN.

1. The rudiments of agricultural chemistry, geology, mineralogy, botany, and vegetable physiology, so far as they have a practical application to agriculture. 2. The nature and improvement of soils.

3. The nature, properties, and application of the several manures.

4. The effects of heat, light, and water on soils, manures, animal and vegetable life.

5. The nature, situation, and properties of farms in general.

6. The proper division of farms, with the crops suitable, according to soil and situation.

7. The situation and construction of farm buildings.

8. Rotations of crops, fencing and draining, according to the most approved principles.

9. The scientific principles of ploughing, and the general construction and use of farm implements.

10. The cultivation of green and grain crops, proper quantity of seeds, and best mode of culture.

11. Haymaking and harvesting.

12. Animal physiology and veterinary practice, and general management of horses.

13. Cattle, their several breeds, management, diseases, and modes of cure; also of sheep and swine.

14. Horse-feeding and fattening of cattle, with the improved modes of dairy management.

15. Practical gardening, under the direction of Mr. Campbell.

The results of this course of training with the teachers, are best seen in the following notice of the National School, at Larne,-an ordinary school in which agricultural chemistry and practical agriculture are provided for in the course of study.

"This is not, properly speaking, an agricultural school, but a national school, where the common branches of education are taught; and there is connected with it a department or class of agricultural study, and a small piece of land, which the boys cultivate, and on which, in the way of experiment, the principles of agriculture, and its general practice, are, within a very limited extent, illustrated and tested. The examination was eminently successful, and creditable alike to the teacher and the pupils. It was from this establishment that a detachment of five pupils was sent for examination to the great meeting of the Agricultural Society of Scotland the last autumn, where their attainments created a great sensation, and produced an impression, on the subject of the importance of agricultural education, which is likely to lead to the adoption of some universal system on the subject.

I shall transcribe the account given of the occasion: Five boys from the school at Larne were introduced to the meeting, headed by their teacher. They seemed to belong to the better class of peasantry, being clad in homely garbs; and they appeared to be from twelve to fifteen years of age. They were examined, in the first instance, by the inspector of schools, in grammar, geography, and arithmetic; and scarcely a single question did they fail to answer correctly. They were then examined, by an agricultural professor, in the scientific branches, and by two practical farmers in the practical departments of agriculture. Their acquaintance with these was alike delightful and astonishing They detailed the chemical constitution of the soil and the effect of manures,