STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. ' 341 



shall be conducted by specialists connected with the service. The 

 joint committee representing this cooperative work has already begun 

 the plans for such studies. 



A cooperative undertaking with the Bureau of Education resulted 

 in a manuscript on the Vocational Agricultural Education in the 

 Secondary Schools of Six Northeastern States which was submitted 

 for publication by the Bureau of Education. A second manuscript 

 on a survey of two counties in Texas was also submitted to the bureau 

 for publication. 



A manuscript has been prepared in cooperation with the State 

 department of education and the State college of agriculture of 

 Ohio for a Manual of Agriculture for the Elementary Schools of 

 Ohio, to be published and distributed by the State department of 

 education. A similar bulletin begun in the preceding year was pub- 

 lished by the State department of education of Virginia. 



The report of the committee on agriculture of the Commission on 

 the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the National Educa- 

 tion Association was compiled in this office and was presented to the 

 reviewing committee in February. 



The cooperation with the committee on instruction in agriculture 

 of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations was continued, the topic under consideration being " War 

 emergency courses conducted by the agricultural colleges." 



A member of the staff continued to act as secretary of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching and 

 the association utilized the office as a clearing house in many ways. 

 Reports on material for visual instruction and on the relation of in- 

 struction in general science and agriculture were submitted at the 

 meeting of the association in November, 1917. 



The literature on agricultural education which is reviewed for 

 Experiment Station Record was so voluminous as to require a large 

 portion of the time of one member of the staff. 



Members of the staff made circuits among the teacher-training in- 

 stitutions for the purpose of giving assistance and to study the prob- 

 lems involved. Incidentally they cooperated in the first campaign 

 of the Food Administration in July and August, 1917. So far as 

 possible the office has made its documents and circulars, as well as 

 its other work, fit into the war emergency campaigns of the depart- 

 ment. 



INVESTIGATIONS ON FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



J. M. Stedman, Farmers' Institute Specialist. 



At the close of the fiscal year farmers' institutes were still con- 

 ducted by the State departments of agriculture, the commissioners of 

 agriculture, or special State farmers' institute officials in 15 States, 

 while in the remaining 33 States this activity was entirely in charge 

 of the extension division of the State agricultural colleges as a fea- 

 ture of their regular extension work. 



Farmers' institutes in the United States, however, are not rap- 

 idly decreasing as a result of this change in management, as is shown 

 by the number of sessions and their attendance. This is surprising, 

 in view of the fact that before the agricultural colleges entered the 

 field the State farmers' institutes included women's institutes, young 



