FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 625 



ATTENDANCE AT FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



The following is a table giving the summary of statistics regarding 

 Farmers' Institute work during the past 3 r ear. These reports are accord- 

 ing to figures furnished us by the Conductors in the case of the County 

 Institutes, and by the State speakers in the case of the One-day Institutes. 

 Especially at the One-day Institutes, the records of attendance sent by 

 the State speakers and the Secretaries were practically alike. In a few 

 cases, from the County meetings, the record of attendance sent by the 

 Secretary varied from that sent by the Conductor. In former years these 

 have often differed considerably, and we averaged them in making up 

 the total attendance. However, the variance this year is much less, 

 and hence we have taken the Conductor's count. In former years our only 



METHOD OP COUNTING 



has been to secure the average per session at each Institute. This, how- 

 ever, is not wholly satisfactory, inasmuch as it does not give totals. 

 Therefore this year we give, in computations of attendance, the highest 

 attendance at any one session of the Institute. This count gives a very 

 conservative estimate of the actual number of different people reached 

 by any one meeting, or by a series of meetings. And yet this is not quite 

 adequate for purposes of comparison — for one Institute may have one 

 session that is enormously large, because of some special attraction, while 

 the general average is below some other Institute that has good attend- 

 ance at every session. Hence we also give the total attendance at all 

 sessions of all Institutes. We do not pretend that this is a basis for com- 

 puting the number of people reached, but as between different Institutes, 

 different counties, the work of different years in the same localities, and 

 for purposes of comparing with work in other states, this, perhaps, is 

 the best method of computation. 



We devote considerable space to this matter of attendance at Insti- 

 tutes largely because heretofore such statistics have been inadequate, 

 and because it is really the only basis we have for determining the work 

 accomplished in different parts of the State under different conditions, 

 and also of showing the scope of the work as a whole. 



It will be seen that the total attendance the past season was 118,692. 

 The figures for three years are as follows: 



1895-6 96,122 



1896-7 84,061 



1897-8 118,692 



79 



