39 



1^. (ialc, vice-president of ihc lH>anl, presided, the matter uf fanners' institutes was 

 suggested l)y Mr. Gale, and al the ensuing session the subjeet was formulated into a 

 set (if resolutions presented l>y Charles Reynolds, a member of the board. The reso- 

 lutions, after n ferring to the desirability (f extending the benefits of the institution 

 to the people of the State at large, provided that '• the president and pn.fessors be 

 r»'quired to visit the more populous settlements <i the State and ])y free converse, as 

 well as by formal lectures, make known the character and aims of the State agricultural 

 college." 



Before adjournment Hon. G. W. Glick, a member uf the boanl of visitors, who had 

 l)een invited to meet with the board <.f regents, presented the following resolution: 



Resolved, That a system (,f lecturing on agricultural subjects at this college and in 

 the populous settlements of the several counties of the State should be continued, so 

 that the benefits cf farming according to correct agricultural principles may be dissemi- 

 nated throughout the State. 



In compliance with this resolution a farmers' institute was ajjpointed for November 

 20 and 21, 18(58, to be held at Wabaunsee, to be addrest by President J. Denison, 

 Professors Mudge and Hougham, Hon. ('. B. Lewis, and others. (Manhattan Sentinel, 

 November 14, 1808.) 



This same paper, in its issue i^f Xovember 28, refers to the Wal)aunsee institute in 



the following manner: 



There was a large attendance and the interest of the fanners was manifest. Several 

 topics t.f practical value were discussed, and altogether this second of the series cf insti- 

 tutes in agriculture by the faculty < f the agricultural college was a decided success. 



An account cf the institute held Novemljer 14 appeared in the Kansas Farmer for 

 December, 1868, then edited by George T. Anthony, afterwards governor cf the State. 

 In commenting upon the institute the editor says: "The idea of agricultural institutes 

 is, we believe, original with the president and professors < f our State agricultural 

 college. The initial step in this enterprise was taken Saturday, November 14, by the 

 holding of an institute in the court-house at Manhattan." The same article, in giving 

 an abstract of President Denison's address, reports him as stating that he believed there 

 existed a demand for such concerted action among the tillers ( f the soil as would be 

 afforded by the system of agricultural institutes there and then inaugurated. 



A third institute was held at the agricultural college at Manhattan, beginning January 

 18, 1869, and continuing thru the 19th, 20th, and 21st. The announcement states 

 that •' a numlier of persons will unite with the faculty in giving lectures." At this 

 institute the following subjects were discust: Cultivation (f land; fences; coopera- 

 tion in farming; gypsum as a fertilizer; potato growing; progress in the world; weeds; 

 small fruits; raising fruit trees; Indian corn; raising hedges and forest trees; cultivat- 

 ing trees; insects injurious to vegetation; birds, their habits and the benefits we 

 receive as well as the injury that is done by them to crops; the dairy. 



The Kansas Farmer for February, 1869, under the heading "Agricultural college 

 lectures," gave a ten-column account of this institute, which concluded as follows: 

 "Thus cerminated in the most successful manner an experimental effort to inaugurate 

 and popularize a system of agricultural institutes under the auspices of the State agri- 

 cultural college." 



In 1870 a three-day institute was held at the college, beginning January 17. A full 

 report of this is given in the Manhattan Standard for January 22 and 29, 1870. In 1871 

 a similar institute was held at the college, which was advertised in the Manhattan 

 Nationalist for January 13, and a full report was published in that paper in its issue of 

 January 27. 



The next institute was held in 1872 at the agricultural college, with a reported attend- 

 ance of 428. The Kansas Farmer for February 1, 1872, in its account of the institute, 

 states that "it was originally intended, we believe, to hold these institutes under the 

 auspices of the college faculty in different parts of the State, but this plan seems to have 



