STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 567 



tion and the Federal Board for Vocational Education have been 

 taking an active interest in the problems connected with the or- 

 ganization and administration of instruction in agriculture, the 

 States Eelations Service has confined its work to the preparation 

 of subject matter in form for immediate use by teachers and to aid- 

 ing teachers to obtain department publications, lantern slides, and 

 other illustrative material. 



FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



Meetings of agricultural societies have been held in the United 

 States since the closing years of the eighteenth century. In 1853, at 

 a meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, Doctor Hitch- 

 cock, of Amherst College, read a paper on "Farmers' institutes," 

 which he suggested should be organized after the example of 

 teachers' institutes. This name came into actual use for farmers' 

 meetings in that State in 1870 and a little earlier in Kansas. 



The agricultural colleges early took an active part in the insti- 

 tutes, though their administration was often committed to the State 

 boards or departments of agriculture. By the time of the passage 

 of the Hatch Act the institutes were recognized as important agencies 

 for the dissemination of agricultural information and the Office of 

 Experiment Stations took an interest in them from its beginning. 

 Its work of aiding the institute officers and lecturers came to be of 

 sufficient importance to justify a special appropriation for this 

 purpose, which was first made by Congress in 1902, and in 1903 Prof. 

 John Hamilton, who had been a teacher of agriculture in the Penn- 

 sylvania State College and secretary of agriculture in Pennsyl- 

 vania, was appointed farmers' institute specialist. Annual reports 

 on the progress of the institutes and of similar work in foreign 

 countries have been published, the workers in the institutes have 

 been furnished with publications, lantern slides, and other illus- 

 trative materials, and the interests of the institutes have been pro- 

 moted in various other ways. The work of the institutes grew in 

 extent and importance until in the years immediately preceding the 

 passage of the Smith-Lever Extension Act over 7,000 of these meet- 

 ings were annually held, over 1,000 lecturers were regularly em- 

 ployed, and the aggregate attendance rose to over 3,000,000 people. 



Since the passage of the Smith-Lever Extension Act the institutes 

 in most of the States have been made a part of the general system 

 of extension work carried on by the agricultural colleges, and the 

 department's work relating to the institutes is now conducted 

 through the office of cooperative extension work. 



EXTENSION WORK. 



From their beginning the agricultural colleges and the Department 

 of Agriculture disseminated agricultural information among the 

 farming people through correspondence, distribution of publica- 

 tions, and addresses at meetings by members of their staffs. This 

 work was greatly increased through their connection with the 

 farmers' institutes. The colleges gradually enlarged the scope of 

 their extension work, particularly in the decade beginning about 

 1905, when distinct extension divisions were organized. Among the 

 78007— AGB 1923 37 



