69 



Farmers' institutes in New York State. 



1886. . . 

 1887... 

 1887-88 

 1888-89 

 1889-90 

 1890-91 

 1891-92 

 1892-93 

 1893-94 

 1894-95 

 1895-96 

 189&-97 

 1897... 

 1898... 

 1899... 

 1900... 

 1901... 

 1902... 

 1903... 



Number. 



1 



5 

 20 

 37 

 60 

 100 

 105 

 150 

 145 

 277 

 275 

 242 

 227 

 257 

 254 

 296 

 299 

 250 

 312 



Director. 



Under supervision of — 



I Cornell University 



J. S. Woodwa rd i New York Agricultural Society . 



do do 



do do 



do do 



George T. Powell do 



do do 



do do 



George A. Smith State department of agriculture , 



do do 



do do 



F. E. Dawley I do 



.do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 



.do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 

 .do. 



Appro- 

 priation. 



$1,050 

 6,000 

 6,000 

 10,000 

 10,000 

 10,000 

 15,000 

 15,000 

 15,000 

 15,000 

 15,000 

 15,000 

 20,000 

 20,000 

 20,000 

 20.000 

 20,000 

 20,000 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



The legislature of Nortn Carolina first recognized farmers' institutes in 1887 in the 

 law concerning the board of agriculture. Section 5 of this law is as follows: 



The said board shall cooperate and aid in the formation of farmers' institutes in all 

 the counties in the State and shall send the commissioner of agriculture, the director 

 of the experiment station, the teachers in the agricultural college, and some other rep- 

 resentatives from their body to assist in holding these institutes at least once in every 

 two years in every county'in the State, in order to instruct the people in improved 

 methods of farmirig and to ascertain the wants and necessities of the various farming 

 neighborhoods. 



There is no very clear record at hand showing what was done under this law that 

 year and the following years, 1888 and 1889, ])ut that a few institutes were held is 

 known. 



The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was organized in the fall of 1889. 

 Since it was impracticable for the professors to attend institutes during term time, it 

 came to be the rule that the institutes should be held during the summer vacation and 

 at the comparatively leisure time on the farms between the completion of the cultiva- 

 tion of the crops and their harvesting. 



In July and August, 1890, the first vacation after the organization of the college, the 

 then commissioner of agriculture, John Robinson, planned a series of two-day insti- 

 tutes embracing ten counties in the western and southwestern parts of the State. The 

 idea was then new to the farmers, and the advertising of the meetings was defective, so 

 that with a single exception the audiences were small; but in each county interest was 

 excited in the work, and thereafter applications for institutes came in, not only from 

 the counties visited but from many others as well. 



There being nearly one hundred counties in the State, it has been impracticable for 

 the commissioner to fully comply with the law, which requires an institute to be held 

 in each county at least once in two years. In fact, there are a few counties in which no 

 institute has yet been held. 



The legislature has never made specific appropriation for institutes. What has been 

 done has been with such funds as the board of agriculture was willing to appropriate 

 from its income, derived from the tax on commercial fertilizers. The lecturers have 

 received no compensation for their services. This work has been entirely a labor of 

 love, the lecturers from the college and experiment station contributing their vacation 

 time to the institute work, thus giving up their own time needed for rest and recupera- 

 tion in order to make the institutes as efficient as possible. Altho institutes have been 



