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PKRPETIITY. 



In discussing thti essential features of the fanners' institute work and of a system 

 that will secure the ends desired, there arises, first of all, the question of stahilily. 



The friends of this movement believe that the institute provides for a need in 

 industrial education that no other institution has yet met, and tliat it has come to 

 stay. If this is true, then some form of organization that will secure permanency has 

 become a necessity. 



It can l)e stated as a general truth that no institution that is dependent for its con- 

 tinuance or efficiency upon the life or ability of any one man is well founded. 

 Sooner or later such an administration must close its term and a new man or set of 

 men nuist take control. When this occurs there is almost certain to be a consider- 

 able period when the progress of the work is seriously interrupted, and not 

 infrequently the entire system and poiicy which had been adopted and successfully 

 conducted for years are completely overthrown. 



On the other hand, where institutions are so organized and established that all of 

 the important features of their administration are securely fixed by law, removals 

 from position and changes of administration can do no serious harm. The consti- 

 tuted order is preserved and the work goes steadily on decade after decade, accunm- 

 lating valuable experience and transmitting its methods and its powers unimpaired 

 for the benefit of future generations. 



The institute has I'-ic^me a part of our system of industrial education, and its 

 organization, therefore, should be such as will insure its permanent, continued 

 existence. There is but one way to secure this, and that is to have it become a legal 

 body with its powers and duties clearly defined and firmly tixed by law. 



LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



The second necessary feature to be provided in order that the institutes may be 

 permanent and progressive is that of efficient local organization. 



No enterprise requiring the cooperation of the citizen to carry it into effect can 

 hmg endure unless the individual whose cooperation is requirecl is given a share in 

 the responsibility. There is an interest, vigor, and efficiency created and promoted 

 in placing responsibility upon men that are never developed where they are paui»er- 

 ized by being maintained without exertion of their own. Remove from the township 

 (jr county the element of personal responsibility for their government and control, 

 and in a short time the majority of the citizens will have lost interest in public 

 affairs and will tamely accept whatever those who rule from distant capitals impose. 

 A strong local organization, recognized by the law, with defined duties and respon- 

 sibilities, is essential for the perpetuity of the institute, as well as for the best per- 

 formance of that which it has been created to effect. These local organizations 

 should not be limited to a single society for a county, but should extend to the sub- 

 divisions of counties, so as to reach and include the practical farmer and his family 

 by being made easily accessible to every farm home. The average farmer will not, 

 week after week or month after month, travel 10, 15, or 20 miles to attend a 

 meeting of agricultural people but will be glad to be a member of a local club or 

 society that includes his neighbor if it proves itself useful and is within easy reach. 



CENTRAL SUPERVISION. 



A third element in an institute system that is to .secure perpetuity and efficiency 

 to the work is central supervision. 



An institution without a head is weak. There must l)e a competent central organ- 

 izing power to coordinate and direct or the enterprise will fail. This is so generally 

 recognized and accepted both in governmental and business affairs as to need no 

 demonstration. 



In the farmers' institute work a central office is specially necessary. The institute 

 work is so distributed that cooperation between its parts is scarcely possible unless 

 tliere be some central supervising power to act as a common medium of communica- 

 tion. The interests which the institutes represent are of such magnitude aiid 

 importance as to require the undivided attention of at least one callable diret;tor in 

 each State to jiroperly oversee. To plac-e their control in the hands of a man already 

 overburdened with other responsiV)ilities is in all cases to hinder, and in many to 

 practically destroy, the efficiency of the work. If the duties connected with the 

 supervision of a college with but a few hundred students at most, or of a district 

 school with but a score or two of pupils, recjuire the entire time of the president or 

 of the teacrher in charge to properly oversee and conduct, surely a school of agriculture, 



