FAEMEES' INSTITUTES. 45 



To supplement the farmers' institutes by providing more definite 

 instruction on particular agricultural subjects the Office has under- 

 taken the preparation of short courses of from ten to twenty lessons 

 on a few selected topics especially adapted to different localities to be 

 given under the direction of competent instructors. In pursuance of 

 this policy a course in cheese making for movable schools of agricul- 

 ture, prepared b}^ L. L. Van Slyke, of the New York State Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, consisting of fourteen lectures with 

 references and a corresponding number of practice exercises, has been 

 published as a bulletin of this Office, and arrangements have been 

 made for the preparation of five other courses of a similar character. 

 Great care is being exercised in the preparation of these courses to 

 have them in proper pedagogic form. The difficulty of condensing 

 the courses into comparativel}' few lectures, at the same time insuring 

 their reasonably complete treatment, is partially overcome by the lib- 

 eral use of references to literature which will furnish a selected course 

 of collateral reading following each lecture and preceding each prac- 

 tice exercise. Such itinerant schools of instruction have proven very 

 successful in several European countries, and it is believed that they 

 can be made to serve a very useful purpose in this country in supple- 

 menting present agencies for the wider dissemination of agricultural 

 knowledge. 



The statistics of farmers' institutes in the United States as com- 

 piled by the Farmers' Institute Specialist are included in a report 

 given on page 301. According to these statistics institutes are now 

 organized in all of the States and in all of the Territories excepting 

 Alaska. Institute meetings were held in all of the States excepting 

 Florida, Nevada, and Washington and the Territory of New Mex- 

 ico. The failure of the legislatures in these States and in this Ter- 

 ritory to provide for the maintenance of the institutes accounts for 

 their temporary discontinuance. 



The total number of institutes held was 3,409 and the total number 

 of sessions 11,409. The total attendance at these institutes was 

 1,299,172, an increase of 403,980 over the attendance of the previous 

 year. The average number at each session was 114. The appropri- 

 ations for institute purposes amounted to $269,672. Fifteen States 

 reported round-up meetings, with an attendance of 24,598 ; 19 States 

 held special institutes, attended by 85,762; 13 States reporting upon 

 agricultural trains give an approximate attendance upon these trains 

 of 215,890. The aggregate attendance for the year, including the 

 regular institutes, the round-up meetings, special institutes, and rail- 

 road specials, was 1,625,422. The number of institute lecturers in- 

 creased from 995 in 1905 to 1,225 in 1906. Of these 342 were sup- 



