REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 215 



pare teachers for this work 196 normal schools now give instruction 

 in agriculture. 



In 1897 the department listed 70 colleges and high schools as 

 teaching agriculture; now the list — an incomplete one at that — 

 includes 2,575 colleges and high schools in the United States. 



Prior to 1897 the Office of Experiment Stations had no regular 

 agricultural education service, and it had issued only about two 

 dozen publications relating in any way to agricultural education. 

 Since that time it has issued 123 publications, dealing with all phases 

 of agricultural education, of which hundreds of thousands of copies 

 have been sent to all parts of the country. It has five people giving 

 all of their time and five others giving a part of their time to the pro- 

 motion of agricultural education. For 17 years the director of the 

 office has been a member of the committee on instruction in agri- 

 culture of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations, and for all five sessions of the Graduate School 

 of Agriculture he has been dean of the school. 



The agricultural education service of the office represents the 

 department in its relations with agricultural colleges and schools 

 at home and abroad, cooperates with other bureaus of the depart- 

 ment in educational projects, and lends advice and assistance in 

 every way possible to State and National institutions and organi- 

 zations for agricultural education. 



farmers' institutes. 



The work of aiding in the development of the farmers' institutes 

 was officially undertaken by the department in 1903 under an act of 

 Congress of that year providing for the appointment of a farmers' 

 institute specialist. His duties as defined by the act were " to in- 

 vestigate and report upon the organization and progress of farmers' 

 institutes in the several States and Territories and upon similar 

 organizations in foreign countries, with special suggestions of plans 

 and methods for maldng such organizations more effective for the 

 dissemination of the results of the work of the Department of Agri- 

 culture and of the experiment stations and of improved methods of 

 agricultural practice." An institute specialist was appointed, who 

 entered upon his duties April 1, 1903. 



STATISTICS. 



Prior to this appointment the Office of Experiment Stations in 

 1900 had collected information in regard to the status of the institute 

 work of the country, which was published as Bulletin No. 79, and 

 again in 1902 data were gathered and tabulated and published by 

 the office in its annual report. According to that report institutes 



