69 



Eight here is where the present system seems to fail. The small amount of time 

 devoted to any topic, is such as to make it impossible for the teacher to do much 

 more than introduce it. Tlie field of a,>,'ricultural information has been enlarged to 

 such an extent that no man in an hour, a day, or a week can at all exhau.st one of its 

 more important subjects. Indeed, in the schools it is now found to l)e necessary to 

 take several weeks of careful study and drill to becouie actjuainted with such a sub- 

 ject as butter making, or cheese making, or fruit growing, or market gardening. 

 More time to a topic is the need. 



The farmer now wants to know all that has been discovered about a subject, and 

 he wants the information systematized so that he can use it in his lousiness. He has 

 discovered that a little agricultural learning is dangerous in that it is often an expen- 

 sive thing. He has learned that half knowledge is apt to mislead and injure rather 

 than direct to profitable results. IMore extended and specific instruction is the need 

 of agriculture, and if the institute is to continue serviceable it must provide it. 



SMALL CL.\SSES. 



The stud}' of special subjects for any considerable length of time must necessarily 

 be confined to small clas.«es. Large and promiscuous audiences can not be expected 

 to devote two or three weeks to the consideration of any topic, neither are all inter- 

 ested alike in any one subject. Dairymen are not specially interested in fruit culture, 

 nor the fruit grower in dairying. This necessitates the formation of classes comi)Osed 

 of persons interested in certain specialties — interested to the extent of being willing 

 to devote sufficient time to the study of a subject to become fairly well acquainted 

 with its most important scientific and practical features. 



MOVABLE SCHOOLS. 



To meet the new conditions and needs, the movable school of agriculture has been 

 devised. Such schools have, in foreign countries, largely taken the place of the old- 

 time farmers' institute. The method is for the State director or sui)erintendent of 

 institutes to arrange for the formation, in various districts or centers, of classes num- 

 bering hot less than eight nor more than fifteen persons who agree to attend upon a 

 course of lectures upon a single topic and to participate in such practice work as the 

 course prescribes. The teaching force consists of one or at most of two instructors 

 who are experts in the subject they present. 



If the subject be cheese making, for instance, the course would begin with the 

 study of the character and composition of milk and continue in logical order to the 

 completed product, the students participating in the various oi)erations, so as to be 

 able upon the completion of the course to do the things that they have been taught. 



The equipment of apparatus for giving instruction would be provided by the State 

 directors, and the hall, with its heating, lighting, and janitor service, together with 

 water for cleansing utensils and fuel for heating milk, etc., to be furnished free of 

 charge.by the class, together with the milk necessary for demonstration and practical 

 purposes, the product to be the property of the donors. 



By this method schools on a great variety of farm topics could be organized, limited 

 in number and variety only by the money which the State director has at his disposal. 



EDUCATE SPECIALISTS. 



Through this instrumentality it would be possible to educate in one or more 

 specialties ten or twelve persons in each community who would be well fitted for 

 conducting special lines of work and become eventually experts and sources of 

 information and aid to others. 



The expense of such a school would be the salary and traveling expenses of a 

 competent instructor and the cost of the equipment of apparatus and material neces- 

 sary for demonstration and practical work. 



The teaching would not exceed an hour a day for the lecture, and one and a half 

 to two hours for practical or laboratory work. The instructor in the intervening 

 time would be expected to visit some member of the class each day at his home, and 

 give such special assistance and advice as would enable the pupil to utilize his home 

 equipment to the best advantage for pursuing the line of work that the school was 

 organized to aid. 



COURSES OF STUDY. 



In order that the State directors and institute instructors may have a guide in 

 undertaking this new feature of their work, the Office of Experiment Stations of the 



