THE FARMEKS* INSTITUTES IN THE UNITED STATES. 415 



institutes with 29,573 persons in attendance. A special potato train 

 was run with an attendance of 2,161. Fourteen women's institutes 

 were also held, consisting of 63 sessions. 



VERMONT. 



Institute director. — O. L. Martin, commissioner of agriculture, Plainfield. 



Agricultural education in the public schools was a subject discussed 

 at every institute, and the employing of institute lecturers from with- 

 out the State was a new feature of the work in Vermont. Nine State 

 lecturers were employed, and two members of the agricultural college 

 and experiment station devoted an aggregate of 15 days to the work* 

 The cost of the institutes was $1,200, and 65 sessions of regular insti- 

 tutes were held with 5,190 in attendance, and 6 independent institutes 

 with 1,000 people. There were also 13 sessions of round-up insti- 

 tutes which had 300 in attendance, and a railroad special attende(i 

 by 5,900 people. 



VIRGINIA. 



Institute director. — J. J. Owen, director of institutes, Rictimond. 



Under an act of the legislature approved March 17, 1910, a board 

 to be known as the United Agricultural Board was established, com^ 

 posed of the governor, the State superintendent of public instruction 

 representing the State board of education, the commissioner of 

 agriculture and two members of the State board of agriculture to 

 be selected by that board, the president of the Virginia College of 

 Agriculture and Polytechnic Institute, the director of the Virginia 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, and one member of the board of 

 visitors of these institutions to be selected by the said board, the 

 supervisor of the district experiment stations, the general director 

 of demonstration work of the United States Department of Agri-. 

 culture, and the Virginia director of demonstration work of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



Under this act the United Agricultural Board is required to assign 

 to the Virginia College of AgTiculture and Polytechnic Institute 

 the adult demonstration work and movable schools and other like 

 agencies when established ; to the Virginia Agricultural Experiment 

 Station the establishment and direction of the local or district ex- 

 periment stations; to the State board of education the experiment 

 and demonstration work in connection with the public schools of 

 the State; and to the commissioner and the State board of agriculture 

 the direction and management of the farmers' institutes to be held 

 in different sections of the State. 



In carrying the bill into effect the State board of education is 

 directed to appropriate and set apart out of the common-school fund 

 the sum of $5,000 annually to supplement money allotted by the 



