45 



lecturer, therefore, at one of these Grange centers is sure to have a comfortable place 

 in which to speak and to have a wide-awake and intelligent audience, prompt to dis- 

 cuss his statements and ready to question. 



The interest now manifested by country people in all lines of agricultural j^roduc- 

 tion, as stock husbandry, orcharding, small-fruit culture, etc., as well as relating to 

 the subjects of good roads and agricultural education, will require that the institutes 

 1)0 further developed to meet the expanding needs of farmers in these and other 

 respects. 



More institutes. l)etter teaching, accompanied by practical demonstration in stable 

 and field, is the demand tif the farmer for the years to come. 



MARYLAND. 



The history of the farmers' institute work in Maryland begins with an organization 

 of farmers effected at Brooke Grove, March 0, 1844, at the residence of George E. Brooke, 

 and known as the Farmers' Club of Sandy Spring. Two farmers, Benjamin Hallo- 

 well and Richard T. Bentley, both of Sandy Spring, Montgomery County, imprest 

 with the need of i)eriodical meetings where neighboring farmers might exchange views 

 and report the result of their experience and observation in their farm practise, agreed 

 to invite the farmers of their community to meet for the purpose of forming an associ- 

 ation which should hold stated meetings for the discussion of agricultural subjects and 

 operations in which they were interested. The result was the meeting referred to and 

 the organization of the Farmers' Club, with Henry Farquhar as secretary. The mem- 

 bership included the most prominent and successful farmers of that community. 



It is remarkable that from 1844, the date of its organization, to 1905 the club has met 

 at the regularly appointed times, with only six omissions. Full minutes, showing the 

 transactions of each meeting, have been faithfully kept during this period of over sixty 

 years. The following constitution and by-laws of this club are unique in being models 

 of brevity and comprehensiveness: "We adopt for our government no rules or regu- 

 lations other than those which should always prevail in good society." 



H. J. Patterson, director of the Maryland Experiment Station, in a paper read before 

 the Vansville Club of Prince George County, quotes the text of a bill by S. D. Coad, 

 of St. Mary County, introduced in the general assembly in 1847, making provision 

 for a State laboratory, and which past that body December 18, 1847. The bill, in 

 prescribing the duties of a chemist, provides, section 5: 



That it shall be his further duty to deliver one public lecture after having given 

 timely notice thereof in each election district in each county, and then to deliver a 

 course of public lectures at each county town and at some central place in Baltimore 

 County, having given also sufficient notice thereof in each election district; and he 

 shall permit the clerk of the levy court, or the commissioners of the tax, as the case 

 may be, to take a copy of such course of lectures to be retained and kept for the use 

 and benefit of the county, and published l^y said levy court or commissioners of the 

 tax, if to them it shall seem expedient. 



In January, 1866, the Enterprise Farmers' Club and in 1872 the Montgomery Farm- 

 ers' Club were also orgainzed in this same community. With the cooj^eration and sup- 

 port of these clubs the farmers' convention of Sandy Spring holds annually a meeting 

 at which there are present hundreds of citizens from all parts of the State. These clubs, 

 aided by the influence of the anrual convention referred to, have done much for the 

 securing of legislation in aid of the agricultural interests of the State. 



It is a disputed question as to which particular club or Grange organization is 

 entitled to the honor of first suggesting the formation of a State department of farmers' 

 institutes, Init the credit for having a bill enacted and approved by the governor 

 unquestionably belongs to the Vansville Farmers' Club of Prince George County. 

 This act was past March 27, 1896, and creates a department of farmers' institutes in 

 the Maryland Agricultural College. 



