X. REPORT OF THE FARMERS' READING-COURSE 

 FOR THE YEAR 1905-1906. 



Progress of the Farmers' Reading-Course work during the 

 past year has been in ihe direction of more intimate contact with 

 the readers rather than in securing more readers. 



On October i, 1905, the reports of the Department showed a total 

 enrolhiient of 9,654, of which 2,271 were newly enrolled during the 

 twelve months preceding and 2,546 of whom were organized into 

 125 Reading-Course Clubs. During the year, 3,014 Discussion- 

 Papers had been returned. By comparing the number of Discus- 

 sion-Papers returned with the total number of readers it is readily 

 seen that a large proportion of them returned no Discussion-Papers. 

 The average is one Discussion-Paper for 3.2 readers. Since the 

 second Bulletin of any series was not sent to a reader unless he 

 returned the Discussion-Paper, there were a great many readers 

 who received only one Bulletin during the year. 



It seemed to those directing the work that there must be a great 

 many of our readers who really wanted the Bulletins but found it 

 impossible to fill out the Discussion-Papers and return them. Ac- 

 cordingly, after sending the next Bulletin in series to each of the 

 old readers and waiting about two weeks, we sent a circular 

 letter to each man, a part of which read as follows : " We 

 feel that you can obtain the most value from this by return- 

 ing the Discussion-Papers with answers to the questions or 

 with questions for us to answer. Still if you do not feel that you 

 can do this and yet want the lessons, we will put your name on a 

 permanent mailing list and send you one Bulletin each month 

 through the winter. If you wish to avail yourself of this offer, 

 kindly fill in the blank space on the enclosed card, with your name, 

 address, and the subject you would like to study." One gratifying 

 result of this circular letter was that it brought back a large number 

 of Discussion-Papers. The readers would say that they had in- 

 tended to answer but the Bulletin had been laid aside and the Dis- 

 cussion-Paper forgotten. Besides those who returned the card sent 

 for that purpose, all those who returned the Discussion-Papers and 

 all new readers were put on the permanent mailing list. Practically 

 every one, therefore, whose name is found on the list, has himself 



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