408 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



for next year. As the farmers' institute work is a part of the agri- 

 cultural education extension division of the agricultural college, all 

 kinds of special meetings have been classed as extension work, 

 farmers' institutes being now confined to the holding of regular 

 institute meetings. There were 639 sessions of these regular insti- 

 tutes held during the year, at which 100,723 persons were in at- 

 tendance. Thirty-seven women's institutes were held during June 

 in connection with the regular institutes. Four lecturers from the 

 college of agriculture and experiment station contributed a total of 

 20 days to the institute work, and 22 State lecturers were employed. 

 The total expenditure for this phase of extension work was $21,641. 

 Fifty thousand copies of the annual report of the institutes are pub- 

 lished and a copy given to every family represented at each in- 

 stitute. 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Institute director. — W. L. Hutchinson, director farmers' institutes, Agricul- 

 tural College. 



"With an expenditure of $5,000. not including the salary of the 

 director, they were able to hold 243 sessions of regular institutes, 

 with an attendance of 31,199 people, 16 independent institutes, with 

 3,000 in attendance, and 9 sessions of a round-up institute at which 

 there were 1,000 persons, besides introducing new work by the hold- 

 ing of a number of short courses with agricultural high schools, 

 dairy short courses, and the sending of a trained man to show 

 farmers how to terrace hill land and drain bottom land. In other 

 words, this trained man was in reality an itinerant instructor, em- 

 ployed and sent out by and under the direction of the institute 

 organization to give certain advice to the farmers on their farms. 

 There is already a great demand for expert assistance of this char- 

 acter, and it has proved to be the best plan of disseminating agri- 

 cultural information to the farmer most in need of assistance. 



MISSOURI. 



Institute director. — T. C. Wilson, secretary State board of agriculture, 

 Columbia. 



During the year there were held 194 sessions of regular institutes, 

 with an attendance of about 14,550, and 12 sessions of round-up insti- 

 tutes, with 1,000 in attendance, while three special trains and a num- 

 ber of chautauquas, picnics, reunions, harvest home meetings, increased 

 the attendance by about 35,000. Women's institutes were held in con- 

 nection with 20 of the regular institutes. The college of agriculture 

 supplied 10 lecturers for a total of 190 days, and the experiment sta- 

 tion sent 10 lecturers for a total of 80 days, while 18 State lecturers 

 were employed, no local speakers being used. The total cost of the 

 institutes, including salary and expenses of the director, was $6,143.41. 



