8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



FARMERS' INSTITUTES IN 1904. 



The following extract is from the last annual report of the 

 Board : 



" The plan of conducting Farmers' Institutes which was 

 early adopted by the Board of Agriculture, and has long been 

 followed, was to submit a list of speakers and subjects to the 

 Granges, Farmers' Clubs, Agricultural Societies, and others 

 interested in rural pursuits throughout the State, and invite 

 these local organizations to select the date and the speaker best 

 suited to the convenience and supposed needs of the locality. 

 The expense of speakers and advertising under this plan was 

 borne by the Board of Agriculture, and Institutes were held as 

 far as practicable wherever desired. 



" Following established custom at the opening of the year 

 under review an attractive list of speakers and subjects, which 

 appears in the last annual report, was widely distributed, and in 

 response to invitations Institutes were held in various parts of 

 the State, with results that were helpful and stimulating. 



" In the meantime the Dairymen's Association and Pomo- 

 logical Society, representing the two leading agricultural inter- 

 ests of the State, were each conducting Institutes along its 

 special line of work, and these lines frequently overlapped each 

 other and even more frequently were found to blend with the 

 more general agricultural interests of the State. 



" While this independent action has been entirely free from 

 even the suspicion of any friction, it has been attended with 

 what Dr. Jenkins well characterizes as ' a good deal of lost 

 motion/ and it has long been felt that some more economical 

 plan should be adopted. 



"Accordingly, at the opening of the Institute season of 1903- 

 '04, a conference was held at Hartford by the Committee of 

 the Board of Agriculture on Farmers' Institutes, with similar 

 committees from the Dairymen's Association and Pomological 



