144 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



taining numerous special meetings of institute character. Several 

 of these special forms of activity are rapidly becoming of such 

 importance as to require separate organizations specially equipped 

 for the service that each interest requires. One of these special 

 forms is the movable school of agriculture. Ninety-nine of these 

 schools were held last year, with an attendance of 65,977. 



Field demonstrations also are rapidly coming into use as methods 

 of teaching agriculture to farming people. One State reports having 

 held 67 of these demonstrations, with a registered attendance of 

 21,775 persons. Others have held meetings of similar character -mth. 

 great advantage. The agricultural train is another form of insti- 

 tute activity that has recently developed and promises to be an effect- 

 ive means for disseminating agricultural information. Twenty- 

 eight trains are reported to have been run during the year by 18 

 States, with an attendance of 189,645. 



Fifteen States held 444 institutes for women, with an attendance 

 of 4,850. Institutes for women, because of their importance, ought 

 to have and doubtless wall receive much recognition in future exten- 

 sion work, and institute w^orkers should devote themselves with as 

 great earnestness and energy to the development of this form of 

 extension activity as they have exhibited in developing institutes 

 for men. 



One hundred and sixty sessions of institutes for young people were 

 held, with an attendance of 21,422. When it is considered that 94 

 out of every 100 children finish their education with the district 

 school, and that the large majority of these do not continue beyond 

 the sixth grade, it is important for the future of agriculture that 

 opportunity be given for young people who Hve in the country and 

 have left the public school, and from whose ranks the future farmers 

 and their wives must be supplied, to be taught the latest and most 

 improved methods for conducting agricultural operations. Hitherto 

 the large majority of young people in the country over 14 years of 

 age have been without means of instruction along agricultural lines. 

 To supply this need the farmers' institute authorities in a number of 

 the States have organized institutes for youth betw^een the ages of 

 14 and 19 years who have left the public schools and are about 

 choosing a life pursuit. These institutes differ from boys' and girls' 

 clubs as organized by the pubUc schools in that they are officered by 

 adults, and their instructors are capable speciahsts of the same 

 quahfications as those who lecture before the farmers' institutes for 

 adults. The instruction also is altogether vocational, and is intended 

 to show how to make money in the business of agriculture. 



The agricultural colleges and experiment stations have continued 

 to aid the institutes by detailing members of their faculties and sta- 

 tion staffs for lecture service. Four hundred and eighty of these 



