80 



A woman's session is also held in every institute thruout the State. The topics 

 discust are the country home, its sanitation, its domestic arrangement, and the social 

 environments of country life. 



The farmers' institutes of Pennsylvania have long since past the problematic stage 

 and are to-day filling an important place in the agricultural and commercial interests 

 of the Commonwealth. Their system of management, altho not in every respect com- 

 plete, has been fairly satisfactory and has been patterned after by several other States. 

 The continued and increasing demand for agricultural instruction is daily coming 

 in from every portion of the State, showing that the farmers are alive to the impor- 

 tance of adopting accurate and improved methods in the conduct of their farm opera- 

 tions, and that they realize that their hope of future advancement lies in the appli- 

 cation of the new facts that science is daily discovering and adapting them to their 

 use. To the work of developing and distributing these fundamental truths the 

 farmers' institutes of Pennsylvania are consecrated. 



PORTO RICO. 



Farmers' institutes have not been organized in Porto Rico. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



The farmers' institutes in Rhode Island are conducted under authority granted by 

 the general assembly in an act past May 19, 1892, section 4 of which is as follows: 



The board [of agriculture] shall hold one agricultural institute in each county 

 annually, either independently or in connection with any society or association or 

 other organization devoted to the same general objects, and may hold as many more 

 as it shall deem expedient, and shall, as far as practicable, encourage State and local 

 societies in the interests of agriculture. 



In the annual report of the State board of agriculture for the year 1890 Governor 

 Ladd is quoted as saying that "Four meetings were held in different parts of the 

 State before the 1st of January, 1890. These were small and tentative, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining whether such meetings could be made popular and profitable." 

 Encouraged l)y the success attending them, the first formal institute for 1890 was 

 called at Kingston court-house January 23, 1890, and was addrest by several emi- 

 nent speakers, among others Mr. A. W. Harris, assistant director of the Office of 

 Experiment Stations of the United States Department of Agriculture; Dr. H. F. 

 "WTieeler, of the State experiment station at Kingston; Dr. Austin Bowen and Presi- 

 dent Andrews, of Brown University. 



The second institute was held in Providence February 26 and 27, 1890, and was 

 formally opened Ijy Governor Ladd, and an address of welcome by the mayor of 

 Providence. The meeting was held at Manning Hall, Brown University. The 

 attendance was large and enthusiastic. Speakers of national reputation were present. 

 Prof. W. O. Atwater gave an admirable resume on the condition of agriculture in 

 the United States, and Edward Burnett, of Massachusetts, delivered an excellent 

 lecture on dairy cattle, dealing particularly with the feeding of ensilage, which 

 had at this time assumed considerable importance in the United States. Insti- 

 tutes have continued * ''he present time, showing that they have met a need in 

 the agriculture of tlir "flite that is general and much appreciated. 



The arranging for the holding of institutes is committed by the State board of 

 agriculture to its secretary, and the expenses are paid l)y the lioard out of an annual 

 appropriation of $15,000, appropriated for the purpose of carrying out the several 

 provisions of the act by which the board of agriculture is constituted. Twelve insti- 

 tutes were held during the year 1904, composed of 21 sessions, with a total attendance 

 of 1,260. The amount appropriated for institute purposes was §600, and the entire 



