Indiana Farmers^ Institutes. 



I. FARMERS' INSTITUTES PRIOR TO 1889. 



For some years prior to the inauguration of farmers' institutes in 

 Indiana, under State auspices, the subject came up for consideration at 

 tlie meetings of the State Board of Agriculture. Tlie earliest mention 

 of farmers' institutes which I have found in the proceedings of the above 

 named body is in the annual report for 1881, which covers the latter part 

 of 1881 and the earlier part of 1882. At the January, 1882, meeting of 

 the Indiana Delegate and State Board of Agriculture, Governor A. G. 

 Porter, in a brief address, called attention to the desirability of embody- 

 ing in the reports of the county and district agricultural societies some 

 account of the condition and progress of agriculture in the several locali- 

 ties of the State represented. He urged that these reports should be sent 

 in to the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, at least a month 

 before the following meeting, in order that the matter contained therein 

 might come up for intelligent discussion. 



In discussing Governor Porter's address, Captain Henry C. Meredith, 

 who was President of the Board of Agriculture for 1882, stated that 

 agricultural institutes were being held in different parts of Ohio each 

 year, which were doing much good toward helping to bring out the sta- 

 tistical information referred to by the Goveruoi'. 



Prof. C. L. Ingersoll, who was then Professor of Agriculture in Pur- 

 due University, being present, remarked that he had had the honor of 

 meeting with the first agricultural institutes among farmers in the United 

 States. He stated that the State Board of Agriculture of Michigan was 

 the originator of the idea, and that in 1875 thej- commenced holding meet- 

 ings in such places as the people should desire, in the way of an experi- 

 ment, which had proved very satisfactory. He added that the states 

 of Ohio and Illinois toolc this sub. ect up and said they would give lec- 

 tures to local bodies in the states. This, he said, has been the Ohio plan 

 up to this year, but this year Ohio has adopted the Michigan plan. 



Dr. Allen Furnas, of Hendricks County, offered the following: 



"Resolved, That it is the sense of this Delegate Board that the State 

 Board should create an agricultural institute to meet once a year, to re- 

 main in session from ten days to a fortnight, for the discussion of mat- 

 ters pertaining to agricultural and kindred subjects." 



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