No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 169 



agreeable to you, also much more agreeable to a speaker, to speak 

 without notes, but I understand that these proceedings are to be 

 printed, and so you will have to bear with me while I read a paper 

 that is not so very short, the title of which is "The Normal School of 

 Agriculture for Institute Workers." That is what this meeting 

 represents, as I understand it, and this idea is one of the most im- 

 portant just now that is demanding the attention of Institute Di- 

 rectors. 



As I understand it, these meetings are for the purpose of doing 

 two things: One is^ letting the lecturers see what scientific men have 

 that is up-to-date in their profession; and the other is, that the lec- 

 turers themselves shall have an opportunity to have inflicted upon 

 them some speeches that they are accustomed to inflict upon others, 

 and thereby awaken sympathy for the average institute audience. 



Prof. Hamilton presented his paper, w^hich is as follows: 



NORMAL SCHOOLS OF AGKICULTURE FOR INSTITUTE 



WORKERS. 



Bv Phof. Joen Hamilton, Farmers' Institute Specialist, Washington, D. C. 



Farmers' Institute workers, whether they be the managers in 

 charge of the institute organization and responsible for its develop- 

 ment and success, or the lecturers or teachers giving instruction in 

 the institute school, occupy an important place in the new agricul- 

 ture, and are as much a necessity in agricultural education as are 

 machinery and improved animals or plants in modern farm practice. 

 They have come into existence to satisfy a need in farming; the 

 need for reliable and useful information respecting agricultural 

 operations. Every rural community is suffering for lack of this kind 

 of information, whether it be old and highly progressive or new and 

 correspondingly backward. The need is universal; it is urgent, and 

 it is paramount in importance to agriculture. 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 



When our system of public education was established it seemed to 



have been assumed that the adult farmer, by reason of his years, was 



capable of taking care of himself. That with such instruction as the 



common school gave, he would be able to understand the forces with 



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