129 



tbat which would have beeu ])ossil)k' without this aid. Valuable as they are 

 they fail to arouse tlie enthusiasm that conies from personal contact with the 

 livins teacher. 



The fiinncrs' institute. — The rnrnicrs' institute has more than any other l)een 

 the agency through which country iieople have been bn)Ught in contact with 

 college life and college men. What has this intercourse l)etween the college 

 teacher and the t'veryday worker on the farm accomplished'.' It has tilled the 

 halls of many of these institutions with c-ountry youth. It has broken down 

 once for all the liarrier that existed between science and tliis industry. l)i'tween 

 the thinker in his study and the worker in the lield, and has brought Iiotb to 

 respect instead of despise or distrust each other. It has begotten bt'tween the 

 practical worker on the farm and the investigator and teacher of the experiment 

 station and the college appreciation, a fraternity of feeling and active coopera- 

 tion, that no educational institution in any other age has been able to effect. 



In 27 States and Territories the institutes are wlu)lly controlled by the agri- 

 cultural colleges and experiment stations. Nine hundred and innety-two lec- 

 turers were regularly employed by the State institute directors for giving 

 instruction during the year ended .fune :?(), 190.5. Of this number the faculties 

 of the land-grant coUegi'S and the staffs of the experiment stations furnished 

 3(50. who contributed that year 2,G4(J days of their time to institute teaching. 

 About 1,000,000 persons, chiefly farmers, were met and instructed in the 

 institutes. 



Was a wider door of oi)portunity ever opened to any other set of educational 

 institutions than this which the farmers' institute presents? A door that opens 

 out to a tield altogether unoccuitied and boundless in its possibilities. 



Institute instruction, as it has been given, is however but the kindergarten 

 of what is yet to come. The institutes have shown farming pe()i)le that there 

 is a large amount of valuable information in existence tbat would l)e service- 

 able to them if they had it. and they have demonstrated that it is entirely 

 feasible to impart scicidilic information to practical farmers who have never 

 had the advantage of scientitic training. 



The institute h'cture hei-etofore has been in the nature of a sample of the 

 subject. Not a full presentation, but only a minute portion of the great field 

 that the subject covers. The methods used may be likened to those practiced 

 by manufacturing establishments in their sending out reitresentatives with 

 samples of their goods to exhibit before the purchasing public. The merchant 

 examines the sample, is satisfied as to its quality and adaptability to his 

 trade, sends in an order. In the institute the lecture, as a sample of the sub- 

 ject, has been presented. The hearer is satisfied with the sample; is assured 

 that a large ciuantity of similar information is in store. He accordingly, like 

 the merchant, desires that he be furnished with an amount sufficient to meet 

 his needs. 



At this point the present system fails. As at present organized it can not 

 meet this need. It fails both for lack of time, and from the unwillingness or 

 inability of any considerable nundier of persons in any conuuunity to devote 

 themselves to the study of a subject for a period long enough to become thor- 

 oughly instructed. 



The iiiorahle school. — To meet these conditions and overcome the difficulties 

 which they occasion, a system of " movable schools " has been devised. The 

 plan provides for organizing, in various communities, classes of not less than 

 8 nor more than 15, the members subscribing to an agreement to attend a course 

 of lectures upon some agricultural subject, continuing for from two to four 

 weeks as the case may be, and to perform such demonstration and practice 

 work as the course requires. The school is intended to be equiiiped with all of 

 the apparatus needed for instruction in the specialty, and be taught by one or 

 at most by two experts who give instruction upon a single subject. 



If the topic, for instance, be " poultry " the entire course would be devoted 

 to that study, pursuing a graded outline, beginning with the elementary prin- 

 ciples of iioiiltry rearing, and continuing by progressive steps until its comple- 

 tion, each lecture to l)e accompanied by a practicum lasting from an hour to 

 an hour and a half, in which all of the students would participate. 



Upon the completion of such a course each student would not only have had 

 opportunity to acquire theoretical knowledge of the subject, but would also 

 have actually performed such operations as the practical producer of the product 

 must conduct. The instructor would be expected to visit at least one of his 



21336— No. 16J— 06 M 9 



