61 



organizations. They liavp already named the places of meeting. They secure 

 halls, schoolrooms, or snitable meeting places for their meetin.gs and do all such 

 work, and conduct the meetings, the chairman acting as the in-esiding officer, 

 as a rule. 



The meetings are rer>orted usually to the local papers, and always to the 

 superintendent on hlanks furnished for that purpose, so that he keeps in touch 

 with the work. 



"Over 50 of the 02 counties in the State effected permanent organizations 

 on a uniform basis in the past year, and our conference recommended that 

 the work go on, so I ])resunie the remaining counties, or most of them, will 

 organize during the coming year, and we shall have then perfected the local 

 permanent institute organizations in all parts of the State. 



" One of the necessities for perfecting this organization was the inequalities 

 that were observed in the selection of places of meeting, where the institute 

 had the privilege of voting for a place of meeting. Of course the place that 

 had it this year, if it was a good meeting, had the right of way for the next 

 one and the other points had no show. We definitely provide now that the 

 officers shall constitute an executive connnittee and they, after conferring 

 together, shall make selections, and of course they have time to do it deliberately 

 and intelligently. So when meetings are located it will be in their judgment 

 where they can be successfully held and where the people will actively serxe.*' 



Discussion. 



Mr. Putnam, of Toronto, Canada, stated that the system described by the 

 previous speaker was in large part the same as that in use in Ontario. 



" I hardly know how we would start out to hold successful institute meetings 

 in Ontario if we had not these local county permanent organizations. We have 

 had these organizations since I first had anything to do with this work, fifteen 

 years ago. We have somewhat extended these organizations since that time, 

 of course perfecting them, but they are practically along the same line. We 

 have from one to three or four organizations in each county, depending upon 

 the size of the county and the poi)ulation. Each electoral district forms a 

 permanent organization and appoints its officers. One of the great advantages 

 of this is that you have men in each county, in each township, who feel a 

 personal interest in the work, and if we want any particular work done in a 

 certain township or county we feel that the secretary of the county or the 

 electoral district has a man in that township or county that he can put to do 

 the work and carry it on. We consider that the secretary of the county organi- 

 zati(m is the man to whom the superintendent looks to have things carried out. 



" We do practically all of our arranging for meetings through correspondence 

 with the county secretary. Of course we have a full list of the directors in the 

 different townships and we write to them, spurring them on; but we leave a 

 great deal of the detail to the secretary. We find that it is better to do that; 

 tliat we can have more uniformity in that way. These officers are appointed 

 at a special meeting called for the purpose of election of officers and the naming 

 of the places where institute meetings are to be held that year. They look over 

 the ground thoroughly to see whetlier a certain township or certain portion of 

 a township has been neglected, or if they can not get another director in a cer- 

 tain corner of a township who will work things up in that township. It seems 

 to me the great need in Ontario is to have more men, or better men probably, 

 appointed to take charge of the local work. There are a great many young men 

 and a very great many farmers, even in Ontario where institutes have been held 

 for eighteen years, who hardly know what an institute is yet, and the great 



