71 



points in the State. At such meetings, however, the program was presented by 

 farmers who had made more or less of a success in their respective localities. The 

 Casselton meeting would, it seems to the writer, be properly the first farmers' institute 

 held in North Dakota. Two men prominently identified with this institute were 

 J. B. Power, acting as president of the agricultural college, and J. C. Gill, a prominent 

 farmer living near Casselton. This institute was addrest by members of the faculty 

 of the agricultural college, in addition to leading farmers of the county, and undoubt- 

 edly was a great success, altho the society under whose auspices it was held failed to 

 hold any further meetings. In fact, the society itself soon ceased to exist. 



In addition to the two institutes named in the opening paragraph, two other meetings 

 were held the same year, one at Mayville, Traill County, on June 27, and the other in 

 connection with the assembly of the Chautauqua Association, at Devils Lake, on July 

 5 and 6. The expenses of holding these institutes were met in each instance by con- 

 tributions from the business men, solicited by local committees, who arranged the pro- 

 gram, advertised, and conducted the meetings. Members of the agricultural college 

 faculty took an active part in all these institutes, as well as those held thruout the State 

 for a number of years. 



Recognizing the great advantage of some systematic farmers' institute work, the 

 president of the agricultural college, thru the board of trustees, urged that a small 

 annual appropriation be provided sufficient to pay the traveling expenses of institute 

 speakers. No appropriation, however, was made for this work, altho in the annual 

 reports of the experiment station and the biennial reports of the college farmers' 

 institutes were discust in each succeeding report by the director of the station and the 

 president of the college. 



While no appropriation was provided for a number of years for this work, different 

 members of the faculty took active part in such institutes as were held. In nearly all 

 instances a local committee, believing in the practical results obtained from the 

 institute, would arrange to defray the necessary expenses of the speakers outside of the 

 papers and addresses that could be furnished by the near-by farmers, and thus the 

 interest in the institute was not allowed to lapse entirely. 



At the sixth biennial session of the legislative assembly there was introduced and 

 past an act to regulate the manufacture and sale of dairy products, section 17 of 

 which act made the assistant dairy commissioner director of farmers' institutes and 

 gave him charge of all matters relating thereto. It was further provided that the 

 expenses of such institutes should be limited to the actual expenses of travel and enter- 

 tainment of the speakers and lecturers. The writer, having been appointed and 

 accepted the position of assistant dairy commissioner, planned to devote a certain 

 amount of the funds appropriated for the expenses of the office to the holding of farm- 

 ers' institutes. As it was impossible to use any of the funds appropriated for securing 

 speakers the agricultural college had to be depended upon largely for such speakers. 

 From July 1, 1899, to June 30, 1900, 25 farmers' institutes were held at an expense of 

 $524.39. All the members of the station staff who assisted in the work were willing to 

 give their services, but the number of institutes held had to be limited to the time they 

 could spare from their duties at the college and station. 



The year following institutes were conducted along the same plan, the total number 

 of meetings held being 18. In all instances the place where the institute was held fur- 

 nished a hall properly heated and lighted, supplied most of the advertising matter, and, 

 in some instances, entertained the speakers. 



At the seventh biennial session of the legislative assembly a law was past creating 

 a farmers' institute board and appropriating $1,500 per year for institute work. For 

 the first time in North Dakota it was now possible to secure an institute corps who could 

 devote their whole time to the work The large number of applications which had to 

 be refused showed how popular the institute was becoming thruout the State. The first 

 year a total of 25 meetings were held, followed the next year by 19. 



