THE farmers' institutes IN THE UNITED STATES. 391 



failure to the institute specialist. This new field of effort was recog- 

 nized as belonging specially to the farmers' institute organization and 

 as being one that is in great need of immediate attention. 



The association also gave consideration to the condition of the 

 negi^o farmers of the South and directed that at the next annual 

 meeting a report be made regarding their progress in fanners' insti- 

 tute work and their general agricultural advancement. 



The employment of experts by the year to visit farmers and give 

 personal instruction respecting the best methods in the management 

 of their crops, also to conduct demonstrations, organize farm clubs, 

 and perform such other similar itinerant service as may be necessary 

 was recommended to the directors to be put into immediate operation. 

 The association also submitted to the dean of the Graduate School of 

 Agriculture the question of providing in future courses in that school 

 for instruction in institute and other forms of extension work. 



INSTITUTES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



Now that institutes for adults have demonstrated their value and 

 have become well established in all of the States, attention is being 

 directed to the needs of a class of people in the country districts be- 

 tween the ages of 14 and 18 who have left school and are without 

 opportunities for properly fitting themselves for taking charge of 

 farming operations. The public schools in some States are teaching 

 nature topics in their bearing upon country life, but this is to children 

 between 10 and 14 years of age, and by rural school teachers not pre- 

 pared to instruct in the vocational side of farming except in a quite 

 limited way. Young persons, therefore, in the country reach the 

 age of 14 without very much training in farming and household 

 economy except through the purely practical operations which they 

 perform in the ordinary routine of farm life. 



The institute is proposing to organize these youths after they have 

 left school into associations or institutes under the direction of the 

 institute officials and provide instruction of vocational character of 

 a grade adapted to their age and experience with such other educa- 

 tional exercises as are important to their development. These insti- 

 tutes differ from boys' and girls' clubs as organized by the public 

 schools, in that they are officered by adults and the instruction is by 

 experts in agriculture and household economy and art. 



In aid of this movement, the Office of Experiment Stations has 

 published a circular entitled " Farmers' Institutes for Young 

 People," in which suggestions are offered for organizing and conduct- 

 ing this kind of extension work. 



