DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 101 



These courses were completed under the direction of Mr. C. D. Smith, 

 formerly Dean of the Short Courses, but now president of an agricultural 

 college in Brazil. I am simply assuming the responsibility of making 

 this statement for him. 



Yours respectfully, 



EGBERT S. SHAW. 

 East Lansing, Mich., June 30, 1908. 



REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF FARMERS' INSTI- 

 TUTES. 



To President J. L. Snyder: 



Sir: — During the past year County Farmers' Institutes have been 

 held in seventy counties in Michigan, under the rules laid down by the 

 State Board of Agriculture. In addition to these county meetings, 

 which with few exceptions have been continued for two days, one-day 

 institutes have been held in sixty-three counties. Besides these regular in- 

 stitutes a large number of special meetings have been held relating to 

 sugar beet growing, live stock husbandry, etc. 



A Normal Farmers' Institute w^as held at the college in November, 

 just before the opening of the regular institutes and during the spring 

 a Railroad Institute Train was run for nine days, making fifty-four 

 stops. 



The regular institutes have been conducted on much the same lines 

 as in previous years. The local arrangements have been left almost 

 entirely to the county institute society oflScers, the vice-presidents act- 

 ing as local managers for the one-day institutes. This method has 

 been in operation for nearly fourteen years and has given excellent 

 satisfaction. The success of the meetings depends very largely upon 

 the interest taken by the local officers and I am glad to report that 

 with few exceptions they have not failed in their duty. To arrange 

 a series of institutes takes a considerable amount of time and except 

 in one or two cases where the secretaries receive a small percentage 

 of the membership fees, they serve entirely without compensation and 

 in many instances pay their own expenses. 



It can be truly said that the interest taken by the farmers in gen- 

 eral in the institutes was never surpassed in Michigan. 



The newspapers have been very helpful in advertising the meetings 

 and, not only printed notices regarding the speakers, but reported the 

 proceedings and gave abstracts of the papers. In several newspapers 

 two or three columns were devoted for two or three weeks to these 

 reports and thus gave to the farmers who either could not or would 

 not attend the meetings, the pith of the papers and discussions. 



The attendance in nearly every case, when attention had been given 

 to advertising the meeting and the conditions were favorable, was all 

 that could be asked and in a large number of instances the halls were 

 filled and hundreds turned away. Up to the last of January it looked 

 as though the total attendance would l)e fully twenty-five per cent 



