76 



The Department of Aorricnlture can be to the State department of institute? what 

 the State experiment stations have been, and the same methods can be used l)y it as 

 are now used by the stations, and I beheve the Department will be equally benefited 

 by the helping "as it has l)een to the State department experiment stations. 



WOMEN'S INSTITUTES. 



Miss R. Blanche Maddock, of Ontario. We have met this year, as we have done for 

 a number of years past, for the purpose of learning all we could from your organiza- 

 tion, in order that we may be better fitted for our owni work through our States and 

 Provinces. I beUeve, however, that the time has come when we should have at 

 least a committee of women to work in connection with the Association of Farmers' 

 Institute Workers, so that we may have either separate sessions or may meet witli 

 the association. You may possibly hold your association sessions so far away that it 

 would be impracticable for us to attend them, but we ought at least to keep in touch 

 witli the workers from Canada and the United States, so that we may in the future 

 form some plans for definite work, for the improvement of the work both here and 

 there. Owing to tlie cliange of the place of meeting having been decided upon at so 

 late a date this year it has been impossible to accomplish anything. It is believed, 

 however, that your work will be helpful to the work intrusted to us as women. 

 The commercial value of your work is not to be" estimated. But there is another 

 thought to be considered, and that is that in this country millions of foreigners 

 are crowding to our shores, from all the countries of the Old World, asking for 

 protection and a home. "We welcome them, of course, and we hope that in time 

 they will become good American and Canadian citizens; but we also recognize the 

 element of danger there is in this mixing of classes and creeds. Will the result 

 not depend largely in the future on the stamina of the young people whom these 

 strangers meet — the character of the people whom they meet on this side of the 

 water? This is the thought that I should like to present— that you have the com- 

 mercial side of it, but as women, as mothers and sisters and daughters, we are trying 

 to do our part in making the young citizens so strong and noble that as they come in 

 contact with these farmers it can not help but tell in the unifying of the country and 

 its peoples. It is all very well, of course, to talk about live stock and cultivation, 

 and all the other subjects that are necessary, but there is a thought behind it all, and 

 that is, I believe, that the result will largely depend on the kind of homes we have, 

 and the social and intellectual life that we have in those homes. 



I ask the cooperation and sympathy in this work of the State superintendents who 

 are present. It is impossible to send lady delegates to these different association 

 meetings without money, without assistance, and I w^ould ask that this conung year 

 the superintendents should see that some provision is made for sentling lady dele- 

 gates, so that we will have a strong representation next year, so that we may hold 

 sessions with you, or separate sessions, where we may be able to present our work. 



INSTITUTE ORGANIZATION AND METHODS. 



L. R. Taft, of Michigan. In our work in Michigan, and I am sure it is so with you, 

 we find that we still have unsolved the question of the best method of institute 

 organization and the best methods of work. I will not, however, attempt to outline 

 to you what my ideas regarding these things are, because after listening to the reports 

 of the various States as to the various conditions under which you work, I am con- 

 vinced that no one method would answer for all; but this morning I wish merely to 

 refer you to a paper prepared by Professor Hamilton, in which he gives us a scheme 

 for the organization of our institutes in tlie different States. (See p. 78. ) 



This scheme he has prepared is very complete, and, in fact, if I were in any way 

 to criticise it, it is because it is rather too complex for the average State; but I 

 believe it will be very useful to us. It is full of good suggestions, and I think we 

 ought to print this in full in the report of this meeting and have it for reference in 



