50 EEPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



FAKWERS' INSTITUTES AND EXTENSION WORK. 



The organization and work of the office of the farmers' institute 

 specialist were not materially modified during the year. As shown 

 in the detailed report given on pages 343-388, there was great activity 

 in this as well as in various other forms of agricultural extension 

 work. 



The interest of farming people in institute instruction is steadily 

 growing and extending to embrace new and improved lines of effort. 

 The movable school, the women's institute, the high school, the rural 

 school, the instruction train, and the itinerant teacher have been 

 operating and testing their methods as never before, and large num- 

 bei-s of farming people are being reached through these media. 

 • The awakening of country people to the need of agricultural in- 

 struction and to the possibilities of extension teaching has created a 

 demand for ihis instruction far beyond the power of the States to 

 supply. The inadequacy of our present equipment for meeting the 

 educational needs of rural people has become so apparent that sev- 

 eral bills have been presented before Congress looking to additional 

 appropriations for carrying on this work. The States also are add- 

 ing to their appropriations for agricultural extension in ver}?^ marked 

 degree. California has increased the appropriation for institute 

 work from $10,000 to $15,000 per year; Illinois, $23,650 to $29,000; 

 Kansas, $27,500 to $35^000 ; Minnesota, $18,000 to $23,000 ; Nebraska, 

 $10,000 to $17,500; New York, $25,000 to $35,000; Ohio, $22,000 to 

 $26,400; Oklahoma, $5,000 to $10,500; South Dakota, $9,400 to 

 $13,000 ; Utah, $5,000 to $10,000 ; and Washington, $8,500 to $10,000. 

 Thirty-nine State legislatures appropriated $347,850.57 to institute 

 work; to this there was added by 18 States $51,568.75 from other 

 sources, making a total of $399,319.32. There was expended by 39 

 States for institute purposes $342,746. 62. The State appropriation 

 for 1912 in 33 States is reported at $383,600. Comparing the 33 

 States reporting appropriations by their State legislatures for 1912 

 with the same States in their appropriations for 1911 the difference 

 in favor of the coming year is $65,179.61, an increase of over 20 

 per cent. 



The office of the farmers' institute specialist has continued to gather 

 information along extension lines and has compiled and published 

 much of it for the l^enefit of extension workers. The following pub- 

 lications relating to extension in agriculture were published : Pro- 

 ceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion of Farmei-s' Institute Workers, Farmers' Institutes for Young 

 People, List of State Directors of Farmers' Institutes and Farmers' 

 Institute Lecturers of the United States, Agi-icultural Fair Associa- 

 tions and Their Utilization in Agricultural Education and Improve- 



