Historical photographs celebrating 140 years of the School of Agriculture in Tábor

The School of Agriculture in Tábor, founded in 1866, is one of the oldest schools of its kind in Europe. The origins of agricultural schools in the Czech lands goes back to around 1750s, but the first schools to be teaching in the Czech language were founded only after 1850. At the time the School of Agriculture in Tábor was founded, it was the first Czech Higher School of Agriculture, and until 1906, when an agricultural programme was started at the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) in Prague, it was the only Czech University of Agriculture.

In 1861, the Member of Parliament for Bohemia, Dr. Jan B. Lambl proposed a law requiring that special schools for agriculture and the agricultural industry be created in the Czech lands. This law was passed on 13th April 1861. A Higher School of Agriculture, teaching in German, had been set up in Libwerd (now Libverda, nearby Liberec) in 1856. However, because no such school existed that was teaching in Czech language, all the cities, towns, manors and individuals in the Czech lands were invited to set up such a school, with Government support of 10 000 gold coins per year. (To compare, the annual income of director of elementary school was around 300 gold coins).

Seven cities, and one owner of a private agriculture school, Dr Čupr, applied. City of Tábor, which already hosted the important Czech gymnasium, was chosen, primarily because it promised to invest an additional 50 000 gold coins. The opening of the school was delayed, mainly because of the 1866 invasion of Prussian troops, who occupied the building where the school was intended to be housed. However, on 26th November 1866, the “Higher School of Agriculture and Agricultural Industry in Tábor” was opened, with a Mass in the Tabor church.

To be accepted into the School, students had to be healthy, be at least 17 years old, have graduated from lower high school, and have at least one year of practical farming experience. All classes were taught in the Czech language until 1870, when courses were also taught in the Russian language.

In 1877, the study programme was extended to 3 years, and the entrance exams were made more demanding. Still there was great interest in studying at Tábor, and the school had the largest number of students of any Agricultural School in the whole Austrian Empire. By 1881, students completing their studies peaked at 141 per year. The quality of education was further improved, which expanded to include civil engineering, such as the handling of steam engines, and drainage and river-bed reconstructions. Tábor also pioneered the founding of a veterinary hospital for livestock, an idea that only became popular elsewhere, 50 years later.

Study reforms in 1887 forced the School to temporarily reduce the study programme to 2 years, and negatively affected the interest in the school, but in other ways, the quality of education and research was improving. In 1874, the School set up an Agricultural Chemistry Institute; in 1880, a meteorological (weather research) station; and in 1893, an experimental station for seeds (later to become the Agricultural Botanical Research Institute). A lot of effort was also put into expanding the School's specimen collections.

By 1900, the School had produced 1 309 graduates. The number of foreign students continued to grow, and by the 1890s, foreign students (mainly Serbian and Polish) were one third of the student roll.

In 1900, the “Royal Czech Academy of Agriculture” the first University to be teaching agriculture in the Czech language, was founded in Tábor, by resolution of the Czech parliament. This officially acknowledged the quality of education at the former Institute of Agriculture. The new status was the result of long efforts by many professors and teachers at the School since its foundation.

The study programme was originally two years, but with one preparation year, and later, with a third facultative year. The School roll was between 120 and 200 students, about 40% of them being non-Czechs (ie Poles, Russians, Bulgars, Serbians and Croatians), so it was, de-facto, the Slavic University of Agriculture.

By 1900s, the increasing number of students required the School to be relocated to a new building, which was built, near the original school, in 1902 – 1904, for 424 000 K. (Annual income of teacher of elementary school was 1 200 K). This building is still being used by the school, to the present day.

Shortly after independent Czechoslovakia was established in July 1919, the new Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry was founded in Brno, and a number of professors from Tábor moved there to help start the new University. The first president of the University in Brno was Tábor Academy Professor František Bubák, a very wellrespected mycologist and phytopathologist.

In 1919, the School was changed to being a “Secondary School of Agriculture”, with a fouryear programme. This school produced its first graduates in 1924. Basically the Czech Agricultural University was moved from Tábor to Brno, but all its equipment remained in Tábor and was further extended. In 1920, the National factory for manufacturing teaching aids was founded in Tábor. By 1921, it delivered a full trainload of teaching aids to Prague Agricultural Exhibition, and won the highest award. Almost 4 000 different items (models, preparations, stuffed animals, slides, etc) were made in the institute until 1932, when it was relocated to Prague.

In 1922, the Agricultural Research Institute was founded, which extended work which had begun in 1880s. It had departments of agricultural chemistry, agricultural botany, plant breeding, meteorology and phytopathology. In the same year the school was again turned into “Higher School of Agriculture”. In 1926, a new school farm was established in Měšice, and the first Agricultural Advisory Institute in the country was set up. Between 1922 and 1948, the School was attended by between 120 and 200 students per year, with an increasing percentage being women.

Study at the School was interrupted during WWII, but resumed immediately after the war. On January 1st 1948, the school was renamed the “Higher Peasant School”, with a roll of between 200 and 250, and a new student dormitory was built. In 1951, the school was reorganised into three different schools, all in the same building: Higher Peasant School, Basic Peasant School, and Basic Economics School. Now in 2006, under the name “Higher Vocational School and Secondary Agricultural School of Tábor”, the school is celebrating its 140th birthday.

The New Building of the School of Agriculture was financed jointly by the City of Tábor (52 000 K), Bohemia Region (also 52 000 K) and Ministry of Agriculture (20 000 K). The original design, produced in Prague under the direction of Karel Pokorný, was too expensive, so modifications were required. On May 11th 1902, the construction contract was given to builder Čenek Křicka from Kolín, and by winter, the main walls and roof were in place.

Before the building was completed, however, further modifications had to be made, especially to the facade. According to the contemporary press, the building “looked like a barracks”, so the Tábor City Council asked Prof. Čenský to design a new façade, with a further 3 100 K being offered for the project. The new façade was made in renaissance style, with modern motifs, taken from the world of agriculture, flora and fauna. The facade also features important personalities in Czech Agriculture, as chosen by the professors of the Tábor Academy:

• František Veverka (1798 – 1849) was a farmer in Rybitví u Pardubic, with a passion for improving agriculture. He designed the “ruchadlo” — the predecessor of today’s ploughs, that was built by his cousin, blacksmith Václav Veverka (1796 – 1849). The Veverka design significantly reduced the power needed to pull the plough, and allowed the depth of tillage to be adjusted, thus giving better cultivation of the soil. Their invention quickly spread across Europe, and 10 years later, a similar design was produced by American company, John Deere & Co. The Veverkas hadn’t patented their invention, and there were lengthy arguments about the authorship. Finally, in 1882, their authorship was accepted, and the next year, a memorial to them was unveiled in Rybitví.
• J. Krejčí is often called “the father of Czech geology”. He worked as professor at the Prague Polytechnic School, and later at Charles University. He was well-known for popularising the study of Geology. He wanted to see the natural world studied by Czech scientists, and the results published in the Czech language.
• F. S. Kodym was an important Czech agricultural publicist of late 19th Century.
• F. Horský unified his theoretical work in agriculture with practical work, and in so doing, redefined the study of agriculture. His "field sermons" about the practical needs of peasants were very popular. He introduced the concept of alternating planting of different crops, and invented an improved “ruchadlo”, or plough.

Inside the building, the architectural decorations of the interiors are also in renaissance style. The plastering work was done, partly on place, and partly by Prague sculptor Jos. Pekárek.

The New Building was opened on October 15 – 16th 1904, and became one of the most beautiful buildings in the city of Tábor. The Šechtl and Vosček studios, together with Nepomucký Print, prepared postcards of the building just before the opening. The same negative was used for this enlargement.

The Botanic Garden in Tábor was founded in the same year as the School of Agriculture, on February 17th 1866. In all the Czech lands, the only older botanic garden was Na Slupi, the University botanic garden in Prague. With an initial area of 3.6 ha, the Tábor garden included experimental fields, a greengrocer's garden, and nurseries for fruit and forest trees.

In 1903, the garden was rebuilt on a new site, to the north of the School’s New Building, under the guidance of its Superintendent, Professor František Bubák, and the Head Gardener, Albín Arnold. Professor Bubák visited a number of botanic gardens, and finally decided on a novel organisation. While most gardens of the time divided their plants into families, in the Tábor garden, for the first time in the world, the plants were organised according their agricultural and industrial uses, such as cereals, oil plants, pigment plants, weeds and so on.

After 1907, the Botanic Garden published an index of seeds. The first edition had 1745 different types of seeds, and this index was exchanged with botanical gardens around the world. By 1908, the index had grown to 2522 different seeds, and 8800 bags of seeds were sent to interested partners.

Phytopathologist Professor Kunín, described the Garden in 1920 as follows:

“The Botanic Garden belonging to the High School of Agriculture in Tábor is the largest botanic garden in Czechoslovakia. Its area, of 2.7 ha, is surrounded by a steel fence, and a wide border of ornamental trees, bushes and herbs.

The garden has three parts. Next to the building is the most important section, of plants which are agriculturally and industrially interesting. In small plots 50 cm square, there are over 2000 species of plants, including grasses, sedges, legumes, vegetables, plants producing essential oils, plants for producing fibre, grains, weeds, cereals, herbs and poisonous plants, a vineyard, a hop-garden, etc.

In the next part, the so-called “natural formations” are separated by two paths. Between these is a wide belt of bulb plants, especially from the Mediterranean, and a collection of bent-grasses. Organised grass system edges the whole garden along the lower fence.

In the layout, rocks from our mountains alternate with meadows, deciduous woods, conifers and mixed forests. The stream that springs in “Mount Krkonoše” passes through a peat bog, until it reaches a small lake with water and coastal flora, before passing under the bridge to Lake Jordán.

In the distance, around small ruins, there are earlycolonising plants. On a sandy area grow appropriate herbs, and on the opposite side of the small lake are rocks covered by flowers from our central massif. A rock garden, built of soil and rock from our mountains, contains alpine plants. Beyond is a collection of conifers, with herbs growing in their shade. The rest of the garden is taken up with green-houses and hotbeds.”

Because of its large variety of natural conditions, the garden also has 350 kinds of mushrooms — a notable number considering its position, almost in the middle of the city.

In year 2000, the Czech Ministry of Culture declared the garden, and the school building, to be a cultural monument (historic landmark). Today the Tábor Botanic Garden is being renovated, and we look forward to its next 140