534 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



planation of the experimeut work. Some of the lecturers had ref- 

 erence to the scope of the experiment work, what it was doing. Each 

 lecturer provided a syllabus of his lecture, and there was thus 

 placed in our hands an outline of what he was to talk about before 

 he began. There was little necessity to take notes because the 

 syllabus was quite full. I went there as a spectator and, listening 

 as a scholar, was very much interested and instructed. I made it my 

 business to inquire as to the impression the lecturers received from 

 this instruction and they said they regarded it as of very great value; 

 it helped to fix in their minds the truths of science as understood by 

 our leading scientific people as far as it related to agriculture and 

 furnished those who went out to instruct others with such infor- 

 mation as was needed and gave them a better idea of what they 

 should teach and how they should teach it. The general opinion 

 was that the meetings had been of very great service and the con- 

 vention is to be continued during the succeeding years. All were 

 quite interested and while the visit to the University was of great 

 service to the University", it was also an eye-opener to the many in- 

 stitute lecturers. I think the lecturers from this out will have 

 greater resj ect for the officers of the Experiment Station as to their 

 capability than they ever had before. I believe that a similar feel- 

 ing will result in these meetings which you propose to conduct along 

 the same line, and I believe that the movement for the education of 

 the lecturer is a necessity. No educational institution can rise 

 above the qualifications of its teachers, and if the institutes are to 

 be improved the first thing is to improve its lecturers. 



When I went to Washington to take charge of this work, which 

 I am now engaged in, in looking over the field I found the first 

 thing to do was to get into touch with the teaching force and secure 

 a list of the men and women who were employed as state institute 

 directors all over the United States. After securing the names and 

 addresses of these men and women, I sent out a circular asking for 

 data respecting their personal history, their ages, their educational 

 qualifications, their life work, what they are now engaged in and 

 the subjects they profess to teach. Immediately upon getting "that 

 information I made arrangements with the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, by which the scientific publications of that Department should 

 be sent out to these men for their information, and also entered 

 into communication with the Directors of the Experiment Stations 

 of the United States and requested them to send, to this list of 

 names, which amounted to over nine hundred, their literature. This 

 has been done and there come to me letters and personal state- 

 ments from institute workers showing their appreciation of this 

 service, and I believe that the next great work for the building up of 

 farmers' institutes must be in the direction of the cducnlion of the 



