74 



who comes in closest touch with the men who are most specifically interested 

 in the results of his work, namely, the agricultural classes. 



A man may be a most careful investigator and a thoroughly scientific investi- 

 gator and yet be an utter failure as a farmers' institute lecturer. This is 

 especially unfortunate for the investigator as well as for the audience. The 

 farmers will get the benefits of the results of his work through some other 

 lecturer who is able to take the facts which have been revealed and present 

 them to an audience in an interesting manner. The station worker is never- 

 theless an active factor in the farmers' institute work, even though he himself 

 does not possess the faculty of presenting facts to the farmer. Some of our 

 best experiment station men are capable of putting an audience to sleep inside 

 of ten minutes. Some other man, however, like an Agee or a Rice or a Gould, 

 will take these same facts and present them to an audience and it will declare 

 that the lecture was most interesting. The closer the relations maintained 

 Ijetween the farmers' institute lecturer and the experiment station in every 

 State the better will be the quality of the farujers' institute work done and the 

 more practical will be the station work. The time has passed when general 

 statements of information and funny stories can be palmed off on an audience 

 of farmers. They are demanding facts ; they are demanding specific informa- 

 tion, and for this type of information the experiment stations must be drawn 

 upon. 



The plan which has been adopted by New York State might well be adopted 

 by other States. Every year before the beginning of institute work the entire 

 lecture force is rounded up for a time at the State Experiment Station, at 

 Geneva, and for a time at the Cornell Experiment Station. The men who are 

 to go out into the State and sow broadcast agricultural information are 

 required to spend several diiys in actual work and consultation with the 

 experiment station men and discuss with them the latest information with 

 reference to the topics to be discussed. 



A recent report from the Office of Experiment Stations shows that 323 

 experiment station workers engage in farmers' institute work. This large 

 number shows that there is an active cooperation between the men who are 

 devoting their time largely to work of investigation and the men who devote at 

 least a part of their time to giving agricultural instruction throughout the 

 State. The experiment station can be of greatest value to farmers' institute 

 work as this relation becomes closer. While it is not always a matter of con- 

 venience or pleasure, and not always of i)rofit. for the station worker to leave 

 Lis home surroundings and his work, which is congenial, and go up and down 

 the State, putting up at so-called hotels, where even a fair night's rest can not 

 be secured, yet a certain amount of this work may be of great benefit. It is 

 important to get the farmers' point of view, to enter somewhat into their life, 

 and the station worker who goes out for the first time to address some wide- 

 awake audience is likely to b(! called upon to answer questions which lie lias 

 never thought of before, and enough problems foi- investigation may be sug- 

 gested to him to keep him busy for the rest of his natural life. 



The experiment station is best doing the work for which it was organized when 

 it is doing work wdiich will advance the agricultural interests of the community. 

 This can only be done when a definite knowledge is had of the needs of the com- 

 munity. This knowledge can best be secured by actual contact between the 

 investigator and the farmer. 



While illustrated lectures and lantern slides have their place, yet they are 

 too often made the end rather than a means to the end. The farmer wants facts 

 clearly stated, and it is not necessary to turn a farmers' institute into a school 

 of farce. Tlie experiment station worker needs to have not only facts, but he 



