riiOCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 

 ASSOCIATION OF FARMERS' INSTITUTE WORKERS. 



Evening Session, Tuesday, October 18, 1904. 



In the absence of the president, B. W. Kilgoro, of North Carolina, the asso- 

 ciation was called to order at 8 o'clock p. m., in the Agricultural Building, 

 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, by the vice-president, E. E. Kaufman, of North 

 Dakota. 



President Kilgore, who was prevented by sickness from being present, sent a 

 letter of regret. 



On motion, the letter was accepted, and word was sent to President Kilgore 

 expressing regret at his al»sence and wishes fin- his speedy recovery. 



A paper on The Use of Illustrative Material for Institute Work was read by 

 John Hamilton, of Washington, D. C. (For paper and discussion, see p. 47.) 



For the benefit especially of tlie new meml)ers, the secretary. Mr. ("reelman, 

 i)riefly reviewed the history of the association and some of the provisions of the 

 constitution, particularly that relating to membership. 



Mr. F. W. Taylor, chief of the department of agriculture of the Louisiana 

 Purchase Exposition, being introduced, delivered the following address of 

 welcome : 



Address of Welcome. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen : It is a great pleasure to meet these 

 institute workers. But where did they come from? When I was in chai-ge of 

 the work in one of the States eight or ten years ago I do not think there were 

 more than two or three persons who are present to-night who would have been 

 permitted to pass the doorkeeper at one of our meetings. That shows how 

 rapidly things move, and particularly how rapidly the institute worker has 

 moved and how little I have liept in touch with the work of the institutes. 

 I'he work of the farmers' institutes has taken a new phase since I first went 

 into it a dozen years or more ago in Nebraska, and it has come to represent an 

 educational value which we did not then seek. 



The way in which we handled the farmers' institutes in those earlier days 

 would, I am sure, be rather crude if applied to the present time, but I think 

 that some of us here saw then something of the form which they were to take 

 later on. I felt as I was leaving the work some seven or eight years ago that 

 that particular way in which we had been handling them had about been worked 

 out, i)articularly in the State I then represented. It seemed to me we had gone 

 about as far as we could along the lines upon which we had originally laid 

 out the work, lu that State, up to the time 1 left the work, there Lad been 



(13) 



