29S AX Mi A I. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



ADDRESS. 



, 11 'i\. W..L. AMOSS, Director of Farmers 1 Institutes, Maryland. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I came here as a student, 

 as I suppose you all are at a normal institute. I came here to learn. 

 My opinion is, that in doing institute work, we are not conducting 

 a successful institute unless we are able to present to the people 

 something that instructs and interests them, so if I have not some- 

 thing to give you, I had better sit down, or I am taking up valuable 

 time that might better be applied to other uses. 



Referring for a moment to the line concerning which I heard 

 several addresses this morning as to the methods of doing institute 

 work, I always think that it is my own fault if an institute is not 

 a success, because I act as chairman at all our institutes in our 

 state. We have of course a different system from what you have. 

 We have what might be called the one-man plan. We have a num- 

 ber of local organizations and local institutes, but I think there is a 

 place for the state institute. The state institute can bring men 

 to discuss subjects and study your conditions and supply your needs 

 better than can the local institute. A local institute certainly has 

 its field in bringing out local talent and discussing local interests 

 from your own standpoint, but the state institute has a broader 

 field in which to operate, and I believe is certainly capable of doing 

 a great deal of good by bringing attention to new methods, so there 

 is a place for the state institute, and a useful place in comparison 

 with the local institute. 



I like your system, and in some places it would work, but in other 

 places it would not. I believe that it is necessary to adapt your- 

 selves to your conditions, and to meet those conditions, and so if, 

 with all the opportunities that the institute director has of getting 

 information and supplying the wants of that immediate section, 

 if he does not succeed in that, it is his own fault. I think that if 

 I cannot carry on the work along these lines, and if I cannot find 

 and supply what is wanted in a given community to interest the 

 people there, then it is my fault, and I am a failure. I have never 

 met the man or woman that was not interested in something, and 

 when I go to any part of my territory to conduct an institute, I 

 always try to meet the representative men and women of that 

 section, and then find out what they are interested in and supply 

 their wants. 



