FARMEES' INSTITUTES AND EXTENSION WORK. 353 



will be discussed. Circulars giving this information are placed in 

 the hands of the local agents of the railroad company with instruc- 

 tions to distribute them throughout the community. In addition 

 to the regular force of railroad employees — engineer, fireman, brake- 

 men, conductor, and caterer — each train is accompanied by a rail- 

 road official who is directly in charge of the division of the road 

 over which the train is run. 



When the train arrives at a station, the farmers are invited into 

 the lecture coaches and are addressed by the experts in 30 or 40 

 minute talks. The teaching is accompanied by charts or by printed 

 circulars referring to authorities responsible for the information. 

 Usually this printed matter is made up of statements of the results 

 of experiments conducted by the State experiment stations. Liter- 

 ature also, consisting of bulletins and circulars by other experiment 

 stations and departments of agriculture, is distributed among those 

 who are interested, and information is given as to where additional 

 facts relating to particular subjects can be secured. 



The rapid development of this movement as a means of dissemi- 

 nating agricultural information is remarkable and indicates growing 

 appreciation of the importance of agriculture, not simply as a means 

 of support to the population of the country but as a source of revenue 

 to the transportation lines that is capable of almost unlimited 

 expansion and that is perpetual in its supply of profitable freight. 

 No more powerful agency for the development of the agricultural 

 industry has appeared in recent times than the entry of the great 

 raUroad organizations into this field. That the movement is capable 

 of untold advantage to the farming industry is apparent from the 

 fact that most of the products of agriculture must be transported 

 to distant markets. If, therefore, sympathetic cooperation between 

 these companies and the agricultural industry can be established 

 and maintained, this transportation will be conducted upon broad 

 business principles that will speedily replace the narrow policy 

 that has too often prevailed in the past which regarded only imme- 

 diate returns rather than a future income cumulative, perpetual, 

 assured, and abundant. 



It is very important at this, the opening stage of this movement, 

 that it should be directed along lines that will lead to the best possible 

 results. Unless this is done, the effort may expend itself before it 

 becomes properly organized and this great influence be withdrawn 

 from active cooperation for the betterment of rural conditions. 

 Serious attention, therefore, should be given to outHning methods 

 that will be effective in producing the results desired and to securing 

 the adoption of these methods by the companies interested in this 

 work. 



56096'— 12 23 



