al)le agritultiirt', reineinher there is 3'et another class of resuhs which perchance are 

 not always in ymir plans, the history record of whicli can not he written; it is that 

 unconscious, unreconlcd, unintentioned influence which in a good man's life often 

 aggregates more in the end tlian purposed acts. 



A refreshing enthusiasm, assiduous energy, optimistic leadership, exquisite urban- 

 ity, and personal loyalty toriglit principles are assets which may be accumulated and 

 which may make a "life an exeniplitication of Doctor Johnson's motto: '"Tis better 

 to live rich than to die rich." 



W. L. Amoss, of Maryland, presented the following paper: 



COOPERATION WITH THE NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRI- 

 CULTURE. 



From the farm, the fanners' club, the farmers' convention secretary I came to be a 

 farmers' institute dire(;tor to administer a bill which had been drafted by a club of 

 farmers, which read: "The purpose of these institutes shall be to bring before the farm- 

 ers of the State such information as will effectively lemedy many of the existing evils 

 now prevalent in every department of agriculture as now pursued in Maryland." 



As secretary to the farmers' convention, the first <luty assigned me was to tind a 

 man who coukl tell our road conunissioners and our farmers how he had built a per- 

 manent road. This was eighteen years ago. 



Nine years after in the institute work 1 found that my department could only grow 

 through' the use of men from the farm — what you understand to be ])ractical men. 

 When I called upon the experiment station, the man who did the best and most 

 approved work brought information how he had grown products on "his" farm, and 

 at the experiment stations I was fortunate in my search for i)ractical men in having 

 an ac(iuaintance that introduced me to (Jeorge T. Powell, of (iheiit, N. Y., a jjractical 

 man, a student, and one in close touch with the work of his experiment stations. 

 Through him I met another practical man, Kdward \'an Alstyne, of Kinderliook, 

 N. Y., also a student of agricultural literature. These men, and others of their type, 

 with the good sound advice gotten at the meetings of this association, have built up 

 a patronage to my department of which I am proud. 



Soon after I began drawing on that excellent force of workers of Mr. Dawley's 

 they began their annual meetings at their experiment stations. This was close on to 

 ten years ago. There has been a great change in what the stations had and what 

 the stations have, in both men and facts. The best institute workers come before 

 the audiences to tell how they have succeeded and how the experiment station has 

 succeeded in doing work. As I see the trail of progress for us, as institute directors, 

 it is to take out to our farmers what the experiment stations have done through men 

 who themselves are doing what they have gleaned from the bulletins of our experi- 

 ment stations. 



There is a place on our programme for the specialist — I am not at war with him. 



Now we come to what the National Department of Agriculture can do to help the 

 farmers' institutes. This great Department is the greatest of all experiment stations. 

 What we have done for the State experiment stations we can do for the Department 

 of Agriculture. What the experiment station has done for the institute the Depart- 

 ment can do for the institute, and do it in the same way. Its methods of helping 

 will be subject to change and improvement as have the methods of the experiment 

 stations. The experiment stations found that their literature was not read, that the 

 wastebasket was the tile used in many instances in many farmers' homes for the bul- 

 letins. To-day the literature of the Department is not on tile in the farmers' homes 

 as it should be. Every division of our great Department has gathered and stored 

 away a vast amount of information that needs to go out to the farmers, as we, as 

 institute workers, have taken to the farmers of our respective States the information 

 gleaned from the literature of our experiment stations, excepting, perhaps, it would 

 only be necessary to bring it to the institute director and help his department dis- 

 seminate the information. 



It would be necessary for the institute specialist to have a few men whose work 

 would be to carry this information. As to methods and equipment, I need only to 

 say they should be the same as are now used by our State experiment stations. The 

 Department should train institute workers sent to it on the approval of State directors. 

 A short course should be organized. The Secretary said that he had found it neces- 

 sary to train his men, that the colleges were not turning them out. Now, we need 

 to have men trained, and I believe the Department of Agriculture can best do this 

 for us. At the same time they can be the carriers of information from the Depart- 

 ment to the State institute departments. 



