27» ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Gentlemen, the county institute manager should have some quali- 

 fications of his own. He should be an enthusiastic institute worker 

 himself to begin with. He should be able to take care of his institute, 

 always appointing a live, local committee, fixing the time when the 

 institute is to be held and going there to help them prepare a pro- 

 gram, then before the institute opens he should go and see that all 

 the preparations have been properly made. We have trouble in get- 

 ting halls large enough. There are no halls in our county sufficiently 

 large in which to hold our farmers' institutes without we use a 

 church, and so many of our institute speakers think that the farmers 

 need to be entertained by telling funny stories that they sometimes 

 trample on people's toes, and we have been deprived of the use of 

 one or two of the churches on that account. If you get audiences 

 enthusiastic and heartily interested, it is not necessary to tell them 

 stories to keep them quiet. 



Second, he should have ability; he should be a good parliamen- 

 tarian; be should always have complete control of his institutes, 

 not only of the people who attend, but of the speakers as well, and 

 to do that he must keep his institute running. I made a mistake at 

 one time and Colonel Woodward corrected me for it. I once ap- 

 pointed a local politician to preside, and he always took a long time 

 telling that certain people not in attendance were not present. One 

 thing must be kept in mind. Whenever you give people the time to 

 commence to talk and whisper, you lose control of your audience, and 

 I make it a point to insist that there shall not be any of that done. 

 I know that it annoys the speakers and it also annoys the chairman. 

 Extravagant and unexplained statements are the chief causes of ar- 

 guments against our institute work. The chairman, while being 

 very careful, should be able to lead aud not drive, and see that these 

 things are not done. 



We used to have through our county, occasionally, some people 

 who were so enthusiastic about liming land that they were full of 

 it. It makes a good deal of difference whether you make the money 

 yourself or carry it. They would say it would pay to put three, four 

 and five hundred bushels of lime on an acre. Those people could 

 talk to you very learnedly about dairying. The only two worthless 

 cow t s I ever bought in my life were from institute workers who could 

 make a good speech at an institute and tell you all about cows. 



The Chairman also must have tact in managing his audience and 

 speakers, and prompting them when necessary. I have had insti- 

 tute speakers sent to me who would get up cornerwise to the audi- 

 ence, probably with one foot on a chair-rung, perhaps with their 

 backs turned to the audience, and who would talk in such a way 

 that one would not be able to tell one-third of what he really did 

 know. T always think that such speakers should take a course of 



