92 



Kanawha, Calx'll, Masoii, and Jackson counties. Two days were devoted to each 

 institute, including oneor two night sessions. (Mlier institutes were hehl during the 

 year. 



The legislature cf ISUl had provided for the formation of a State board of agriculture, 

 which took up the work and conduct (>d a series of institutes thruout the State in Green- 

 brier, Wood, Harrison, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties, and assistance was rendered 

 in condticting these institutes by members of the experiment station staff. 



The second semiannual meeting (;f the State Board cf Agriculture of West Virginia 

 was held at Morgantown Octoljer 5, 1891 . There were present T. C. Atkeson, president, 

 B. F. Fisher, C. R. Sperrow, J. M. Rowan, and H. M. Turner, secretary. To this 

 session the director and members cf the State experiment station and the members ( f 

 the board of regents cf the State University were invited to meet the board for the pur- 

 pose of exchanging views upon matters pertaining to the work for which the State 

 board of agriculture had been established. D. D. Johnson, agriculturist cf the exper- 

 iment station, addrest the board relative to its future work in cooperation with the 

 experiment station. He spoke cf the difficulty in getting the farmers cf the State to 

 study the science ( f progress in farming, and the tendency to find fault with any effort 

 made to interest them in institutes and other work that w^ould be likely to assist them, 

 and he also spoke c f the advisability of the board and the director cf the experiment 

 station cooperating in the institute work. A committee, consisting cf members of the 

 board of regents cf the State University, met with the board at a special session. This 

 committee was composed of the following gentlemen: J. A. Robinson, C. L. Smith, 

 A. E. Bennett, and J. F. Brown. There were also present at the meeting J. A. Myers, 

 director of the experiment station, and A. D. Hopkins, entomologist. Doctor Myers 

 addrest the meeting at some length upon the work the station was doing, and was 

 followed by Major Bennett, Mr. Brown, and others (;f the committee of regents. T. C. 

 Atkeson, president cf the l)oard of agriculture, addrest the meeting and stated that the 

 board desired to act in harmony with the university and station. 



Mr. Thrown, of the committee cf the board cf regents, offered the following resolution: 



Resolved, That it is the sense cf this committee that the agriculturist do, upon such 

 reasonable occasions as may be approved by the director (,f the station, attend and 

 lecture upon appropriate sul)jects at the institutes held thru the State under the 

 auspices of the State board of agriculture, and that permission be granted the professor 

 cf agriculture in like manner to attend and lecture at such institutes, with the approval 

 of the executive committee, and this resolution shall apply as well to the director of the 

 station and to the other members cf the station staff, the latter at the direction of the 

 said director; and it is further 



Resolved, That the actual traveling expenses of such agriculturist and professor in 

 and abotit said business shall be paid out of such funds of the station and department 

 as may be available therefor. 



The resolution was adopted and the meeting adjourned. 



The board <f agriculture met the next day, October 7, 1891, in the library of the 

 experiment station, and upon invitation J. A. Myers, director, and the station staff, 

 appeared and a joint meeting was held. The resolution past by the committee of 

 university regents was read and thoroly discust. A plan was finally agreed upon for 

 holding farmers' institutes in each Congressional district in the State and accordingly 

 there were held, under the auspices cf the board, institutes at the following places: 

 Ronceverte, November 5 and G; Parkersburg, November 9 and 10; Clarksburg, Novem- 

 ber 17 and 18, and Charlestown, November 19 and 20. The experiment station staff 

 held institutes at Kingwood and other places in the State about the .same time. 



The farmers were slow to realize the value of the institutes, and the work did not 

 progress very rapidly for some time, except in Ohio County, where a society had been 

 organized by the local farmers and an active interest taken in the institutes. The 

 first institute held in Ohio County met at Wheeling, March 2(5 and 27, 1891. and a per- 

 manent society was organized with the following officers: J.M.Brown, president; J.W. 

 Garvin, vice-president; J. G. Leasure, secretary, and L. P. Sisson, treasurer. This 



