FARMERS' IXSTITlTliS IX THl^. UXITl:!) STATl-S. 



By John Hamilton, 

 Farmers' Institute Specialist, Office of Experiment Stations. 



The demand for exact information of a kind to t)e of assistance to 

 the practical farmer has resulted in the establishing of farmers' insti- 

 tutes. The work has developed so rapidly and has reached such 

 proportions as to now be organized in almost all of the States and 

 Territories, and has attracted the attention of all who are interested 

 in the effort to improve agricultural conditions in the United States. 

 No common or uniform system has been adopted by the States, l)ut 

 each is conducting its Avork for the most part according to methods 

 inaugurated when the movement first began, and when there had been 

 but little experience to guide in their constitution. 



The formation of the American Association of Farmers' Institute 

 Workers was the first attempt to secure uniformity. Through the 

 influence of this association the directors of institutes have had brought 

 to their attention the var^'ing degrees of success that have been secured 

 from the use of different methods, with the result that the most suc- 

 cessful are being generally adopted and thereby a greater degree of 

 uniformity is being secured. The action of the National Department 

 of Agricidture in taking up this work in a systematic way through the 

 appointment of a special officer to give his entire attention to aiding 

 in its development promises to be of service in this direction. The 

 fact that there is a central office to which application can be made for 

 information respecting institutes, and where statistical datii can be 

 gathered for the benefit of the State directors and institute lecturers, 

 will do much to bring al)out a closer union of the workers and greater 

 uniformity in their methods. During the few months in which this 

 office has been in existence, the farmers" institute specialist has per- 

 fected the list of State directors, and has secured a considerable amount 

 of statistical information that shows approximately the condition of 

 the institutes throughout the country. Expressions of interest in what 

 the Department is undertaking in aid of this work and many offers of 

 coop<Mation have been received from the State directors and institute 

 lecturers. 



As a matter of record it ma}- be well to stnte tliat Congress, at the 

 request of the Secretary of Agriculture, provided at its last session 



