366 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



with tliat of (ho State systems, 1)0 oinpoAvcrcd not only to " invostip^ato, 

 report, and sii<r^est," but also to disseminate information, and to do 

 this by means of lecturers employed and sent out by the Department, 

 and by «^ivin^ practical demonstrations in class rooms, laboratories, 

 and fields? Be authorized, in short, to cooperate with and assist the 

 States in their various forms of institute work by actually carryin<^ 

 out in a i)ractical way the plans and methods that its investij^ations 

 have enabled it to reconmiend. 



If the Department is to meet the needs of the States in the direc- 

 tion outlined by the schedule presented, it Avill be necessary for it so to 

 enlarge its 2)resent equipment and institute or<^unization as to pro- 

 vide expert assistance in all of the directions that the State insti- 

 tutes need help, whether in their lecture fields, their demonstration 

 schools, the preparation of their teaching force, the distribution of 

 literature, the gathering of institute information, the printing of 

 charts the preparation of lectures, the giving of expert advice, or in 

 perfecting the several State institute systems. In all of these respects 

 the Department should be prepared to furnish aid. This means — 



(1) Provision for a corps of farmers' institute lecturers to repre- 

 sent the Department before the agricultural people of the country. 

 This force should be composed of experts competent to represent pr<jp- 

 erly the various bureaus and divisions in their investigation work 

 and thoroughly acquainted with the I)rogress of similar Avork through- 

 out the world. 



(2) That the Department arrange to demonstrate the jiracticability 

 and value of movable schools of agriculture. There are evidences 

 that the farmers' institute work as it has hitherto been conducted 

 has in some of the older States about reached its limit of effectiveness, 

 and unless some advance is made upon the methods previously em- 

 ployed the w'ork wull retrograde and lose caste as an educational 

 institution. 



The institutes of the jiresent time have devoted themselves chiefly 

 to creating an interest in agriculture. They have shown to farming 

 people that there is a large amount of scientific information in exist- 

 ence that is available for their use, and they have demonstrated also 

 that it is possible to present this scientific information in an under- 

 standable way to men and Avomen Avho have never had scientific 

 training. The institutes have done this largely by means of lectures 

 covering a gi'eat variety' of agricultural topics, the lecture being in 

 no case a complete discussion of any branch or topic, but merely a 

 presentation of a small part of the great subject to which it refers. 

 The equipping of movable schools, that shall give instruction to 

 limited classes regularly orgaiuzed and jjledged to attendance for a 



