68 



\Vt' liiul Mr. KtTii, of lUiuoip, who if- a power in that line, and we had our own 

 superintendent of pul)Hc int^trnction, and we had a county superintendent in our 

 State who lias been doinj; a great work in getting the hoys interested in corn growing. 

 This su])ject is so wide and compreliensive that the workers are necessarily separated 

 when working each in his own line, and there is danger of a feeling of isolation, so 

 that there is need of bringing tlie workers together. We hope to accomplish much 

 on that line. 



This subject is one that must receive increasing attention, and we must get in 

 closer touch with the teachers of these rural schools if we are going to accomplish 

 I he greatest good in the future. 



Thereupon, at 10.20 o'clock p. m., the association adjourned until November 11, 

 11(05, at 8.80 o'clock a. m. 



Morning Session, Saturday, November 11, 11MJ5. 



The association met at 8.30 o'clock a. m., the vice-president, K. A. Burnett, in the 

 chair. 



John Hamilton, Washington, D. C, Farmers' Institute Specialist, presented the 

 following paper: 



MOVABLE SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE. 



The farmer's institute, as at present organized, has its limitations. In some of the 

 States in which the institutes have been longest in operation there are already evi- 

 dences of their having about reached this limitation, and unless their work is broad- 

 ened to meet the advancing needs of farming people in the science of agriculture they 

 will eventually cease to be an important factor in rural education. 



IXSTITITE ORGANIZATION. 



The farmers' institute of to-day in its organization and methods is essentially the 

 same as it was fifteen or twenty years ago. It consists in meetings of farmers, called 

 for the purpose of giving and receiving information in agriculture. The meetings 

 usually continue from one to three days with a tendency toward the one-day insti- 

 tute. The instruction is given by lectures followed by questions and answers. At a 

 two-day institute it is not unusual for the programme to include from ten to fifteen 

 separate topics presented bv from three to as many as ten or twelve speakers. 



In these respects the institute is practically unchanged. Such improvements as 

 have been made have been in the way of arranging for meetings and appointing 

 speakers often months in advance of the institute season, and in the discarding of 

 sensational exhibitions and incapable men as lecturers and substituting for them 

 those who are experts and authorities upon the subjects that they present. In these 

 respects there has been great advance. 



ADVANCE IN RURAL INTELLIGENCE. 



In the past twenty years country people have not been standing still. The instruc- 

 tion that the institutes have given and the improvement in agricultural journals, 

 which circulate more widely and are read more intelligently and generally than ever 

 t)efore; the distribution of bulletins of information by the agricultural experiment 

 stations and the State and National departments of agriculture, together with the 

 work of the agricultural colleges in educating young men and women and sending 

 them out in increasing numbers to follow agriculture as a profession, have all had a 

 wonderful effect in increasing the intelligence of country people in agricultural 

 affairs, making it more difficult each year to provide instruction of a kind that will 

 satisfy their intellectual and practical needs. 



SPECIFIC INSTRUCTION NEEDED. 



The more progi-essive farmers are not now desirous for variety in subjects so much 

 as for more exact and specific instruction, teaching that will show precisely how an 

 operation is conducted and how the science of it may be applied in ordinary prac- 

 tice and under the average conditions by which farmers are surrounded. 



