92 Repokt of Farmeks' Institutes 



FUNCTIONS AND PURPOSES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 Commissioner Charles S. Wilson 



introduction 



This conference of institute workers with the scientists at 

 Geneva and Cornell is for the purpose of acquainting the institute 

 workers with the information which has accumulated as a result of 

 recent scientific research. In addition, our department repre- 

 sentatives get the enthusiasm and inspiration which naturally 

 results from a meeting of this kind. 



PURPOSE OF THE INSTITUTES 



The item in the Appropriation Bill providing funds for the 

 institute work reads as follows: 



For maintenance and extension of farmers' institutes held under the auspices of the 

 commissioner of agriculture, and for holding farmers' educational meetings and dem- 

 onstrations and cooperating with the State College of Agriculture and other institu- 

 tions and organizations including inspections of and recommendations concerning 

 farms connected with state institutions as provided in the agricultural law, to be 

 paid on the order of the commissioner of agriculture and certified in sums as needed 

 and for which vouchers for expenditures duly audited and verified by him shall be 

 rendered, thirty thousand dollars. 



The institute work has been carried on by- the state of New 

 York for twenty-nine years, this season's work making the 

 thirtieth. During this time it has grown, and grown rapidly too, 

 until the work has extended to all parts of the state of New York. 

 Last year it reached 111,306 people. There were held in 1914-15 : 



Institute meetings 450 



Institute schools 5 



Total sessions 1,305 



Total attendance 111,306 



Through all these years the character of the institutes has been, 

 in the main, educational. They have done, and are doing, valu- 

 able work. In the last thirty years agriculture has developed 

 and progressed in a marked degTce. Recently extension schools 

 conducted by the New York State College of Agriculture at 

 Cornell University have sprung up. The institutes and the 

 schools each perform their proper function, the schools occupying 



