618 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



age county meeting, even in southern Michigan, and the enthusiasm and 

 interest seemed to be fully as great. 



The total attendance at these 71 meetings, found by adding together 

 the attendance at every session, was 31,559, and the sum of the highest at- 

 tendance at each meeting was 16,393. The totals for the State, including 

 both County and One-day meetings, are as follows: Total attendance, 

 118,692; total highest, 40,098. Thus, if we estimate the attendance on the 

 basis of total attendance, it will be seen that the attendance at the One- 

 day Institutes was about one-fourth of the total attendance at Institutes 

 in the State. If we take as a basis the highest attendance at any one 

 session, we find that the attendance at One-day meetings was over two- 

 fifths of the total for the State. If we wish to know the actual number of 

 people reached, the proportion reached by the One-day Institutes prob- 

 ably lies between one-fourth and one-third of all those reached in the 

 State by all forms of Institute work conducted by the State. 



THE COST. 



When it is remembered that this result has been achieved at an added 

 expense of not over |500 of the Institute appropriation, and at an ex- 

 pense of only $184 to the counties holding the One-day Institutes, the 

 results are even more satisfactory. In fact, from the statistics sent in by 

 Secretaries it can be shown that the amount of membership fees received 

 from, members secured at these One-day Institutes has more than paid for 

 the total cost of the One-day Institutes to the County Institute Societies. The 

 total number of members secured was 1.483; in most of the counties the 

 fee was 25 cents. It will be seen at a glance that the receipts from this 

 source must have been over $300. or nearly double the amount which the 

 One-day meetings cost the Institute Societies. 



THE PLACE OP ONE-DAY INSTITUTES. 



There is no question but these One-day meetings compel a great amount 

 of hard work. The fact that they are sometimes scattered, held in com- 

 munities where the plan as a whole is new, compels the County Secre- 

 tary to do a vast amount of correspondence and personal travel. It is 

 also very severe on the State speaker — speaking twice a day and driving, 

 at night or early in the morning, from 8 to 20 miles to reach the next ap- 

 pointment, sometimes through mud, sometimes over rough roads, some- 

 times facing a blizzard. All this makes it the hardest kind of work. 



But in spite of all these drawbacks we are convinced that the One-day 

 Institute plan meets a great need and has come to stay. We only hope 

 that there may be granted sufficient funds so that there can be held each 

 winter from 150 to 200 of these One-day meetings in the various counties 

 of the State, in addition to the regular county meetings. A few of our 

 workers have become so enthusiastic in regard to the One-day meetings 

 that they advocate them in lieu of all other work; but we do not share this 

 opinion. We have yet to be convinced that the regular County Institute 

 can be dispensed with. In fact, we make no pretense that the One-day 

 meetings take the place of the county meeting — they simply supplement 

 it, carrying the work to localities where the county meeting frequently 

 could not go. The County Institute affords far greater variety of topics, 



