400 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



siicli manner as to lin)o and ])lac'('s of luildiiio^ (he sanio as to secure 

 the ;L!^ivatest economy and clliciency of service, and to this end he 

 shall, in each connty where snch institutes are to he hehl, confer and 

 advise with the local member (d" tlie State hoard of agriculture, 

 t()<rether with rej)resentatives duly appointed by each county agricul- 

 tural, horticultural, and other like organizations, with reference to 

 the appointment of speakers and other local arrangements." The 

 institutes are supported by biennial appropriations by the legislature 

 to the deiDartment of agriculture. The number of institutes held 

 last year was lOG. Forty-four were one-day institutes, 150 were two 

 day, and 2 were three day. The total number of sessions Avas 8G2, and 

 the attendance was ir)0,i);J2, not including special meetings. The 

 amount a2)propriated for institute purposes last year was $17,500. 

 This does not include the salary of the director, $3,000, and that of 

 stenographer, $i)00. There Avere 5G lecturers upon the State force, 2 

 of whom were furnished l)y the State agricultural experiment station, 

 who contributed sixty-two days of time. 



Partial re^jorts of institute proceedings are jiublished in the annual 

 report of the department. Thirty-one thousand six hundred copies 

 of this re])ort are published and distributed annually. The local 

 organization consists of a county chairman, who is usuallj'^ a member 

 of the State board of agriculture, elected by the county agricultural 

 society, and one representative from each of the other county agricul- 

 tural organizations. All of the expenses of the institute work, includ- 

 ing the local expenses in the several counties, are paid out of the 

 State appi"oi)riation. "ilie State director fixes the dates and the 

 count}^ committees select the places and prepare the programmes. 

 A iHunber of independent institutes were held during the year by 

 farmers' clubs, granges, and county agricultural societies, with an 

 aggregate attendance of about 30,000 persons. The State is divided 

 into five sections for institute pur^mses, and the institute director 

 furnished at least three lecturers for each section. 



A round-up meeting of the institute lecturers Avas held, consisting 

 of eight sessions. The number in attendance was 200. A feature of 

 the work in this State has been the ^jrescribing of one or two impor- 

 tant topics and requiring them to be jilaced upon the local pro- 

 grammes for discussion throughout the State. " Improvement of 

 country schools through centralization'' and ''Soil improvement" 

 were the two leading toj^ics presented during the past season. The 

 topics selected for the coming year are " Lessons in dairying by actual 

 practice in butter making and handling the dairy." The discover- 

 ing and training of institute lecturers so as to increase the number 

 of efficient instructors in institute work is made an important fea- 



