258 DEPARTMENTAL KEPORTS. 



Department should be most intimatel}" and helpfully related. In this 

 direction a beginning has been made, but much more needs to be done. 



The chief service which the Department has rendered has been 

 through the distribution of its publications to institute workers, who 

 have thus been enabled to keep in touch with the progress of agricul- 

 ture as reflected in these publications. Occasionally some officer of 

 the Department has spoken at the institutes, but there has been no 

 regular plan for the oral dissemination of the information gathered 

 by the Department. The Office of Experiment Stations has in recent 

 years issued a few publications giving account of the work of insti- 

 tutes in this country and similar work abroad, and has published the 

 proceedings of the American Association of Farmers' Institute 

 Workers. 



In a few of our States the farmers' institutes are quite thoroughly 

 organized, have liberal flnancial supj)ort, and reacli a large percent- 

 age of farmers, but in many States and in the Territories the move- 

 ment is yet in a comparatively weak condition, and the organization 

 and means for this worlc are inadequate. In 10 of the States and Ter- 

 ritories no special appro iDriati on s for institutes are made, the funds 

 for this work being taken from funds provided for the support of 

 the agricultural colleges or the State boards of agriculture. In 23 

 States and Territories the appropriations range from nothing to $1,000 

 per annum; in 12, from 81,000 to 85,000; in 3, from 85,000 to $10,000; 

 in 4, from $10,000 to $15,000, and in 3, above $15,000, While in most 

 cases these figures do not represent the total expenditures for farm- 

 ers' institutes, they indicate fairly well the extent to which the move- 

 ment is organized in different sections. It is aj)parent that in more 

 than lialf of the States and Territories much needs to be done in the 

 way of starting and perfecting an organization for conducting farm- 

 ers' institutes. If an interest in the work could be aroused among 

 the farmers in these sections and the way to secure the institutes 

 pointed out, it is fair to presume that funds for the moi-e liberal sup- 

 port of the movement would be speedily forthcoming. This Depart- 

 ment, through its Office of Experiment Stations, jnay assist in this 

 work of organization in the same way that it has helped the experi- 

 ment stations throughout the country. The visits of the officers of 

 the Department to the stations in the different States and the confer- 

 ences held at Washington and at the meetings of the Association of 

 American Agricultural Colleges and Exi^eriment Stations have, it is 

 believed, done much to systematize the work of the stations and make 

 them more efficient. In a similar way an institute specialist from 

 this Office might visit the managers of the institutes and the insti- 

 tutes themselves in different States and Territories, and meet rep- 

 resentative institute managers and workers at Washington or in 

 conferences held in different parts of the country. Already there 

 is a successfully conducted American Association of Farmers' Insti- 

 tute Workers, which may easily be developed so as to become a very 

 important factor in the further development of the farmers' institute 

 movement. 



At the recent conv^ention of this association delegates were present 

 from 24 States. How to secure competent institute workers was a 

 problem seriously troubling nearly all of the delegates, even those com- 

 ing from the States where the institutes are most thoroughly organized 

 and successful}^ conducted. The demand is for institute workers hav- 

 ing a wide range of knowledge regarding the science and practice of 

 agriculture and particularly up-to-date information regarding the 



