35 



Two c'Uu^sc'8 of local institutes in the counties have hitherto been held — (1) annual 

 meetings, usually at the county seats, and (2) supplementary meetings at outlying 

 points near county boundaries. By this means meetings have been much more 

 equally distributed thruout the State than heretofore. 



During the coming season the meetings will be apportioned in the counties in pro- 

 portion to area. Each coimty having less than 200 square miles will be entitled to two 

 days of institute work; each county ranging in area from 200 to 350 square miles will 

 be apportioned three days of institute work; each county having over 350 and less 

 than 500 square miles will be allowed four days of institute work, and each county 

 having over 500 square miles will be granted five days of institute work. 



The following table shows the number of counties holding meetings and the total 

 number of meetings held each year; also the average and aggregate attendance since 

 1894, prior to which time no record of attendance was kept: 



Count]) institute meetings in Indiana. 



Beginning with 1901, when the increased appropriation for farmers' institutes 

 became available, a few district institutes of two days each have been held in the 

 late summer of each year. The management has three purposes in holding these 

 district'meetings — (1) to promote some special line of agriculture in a section of the 

 State specially suited to its pursuit; (2) to afford high-class instruction that would 

 prove helpful to the most intelligent and progressive men engaged in special agri- 

 cultural pursuits, and i^) to awaken a wider interest in the subjects considered and to 

 stimulate the workers in attendance to more earnest effort in behalf of the local insti- 

 tutes to be held during the winter months. 



Beginning with 1898 an annual conference of institute officers and workers has been 

 held at the university in the month of October. In holding these annual conferences 

 several purposes have been kept steadily in view. The more important of these are: 

 (1) To inform all the workers more fully as to the nature, scope, needs, and importance 

 of the institute work; (2) to consider carefully the lines of work that should be under- 

 taken; (3) to discover and adopt the best methods of advertising, conducting, and 

 reporting the institutes; (4) to acquaint the workers with each other and thus develop 

 and foster a spirit of good-fellowship and mutual helpfulness; (5) to give to the workers 

 a higher and broader conception of the dignity and importance of the institute work 

 and to inspire them to more diligent effort to accomplish the ends in view; (6) to enable 

 the workers to meet from time to time prominent and widely useful men in the field 

 of agricultural education and thereby acquire broader and truer conceptions of the 

 importance and relations of the farmer; (7) to inspire a deeper love for agricultural 

 pursuits and a more earnest desire for the betterment of agricultural conditions, and 



