308 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



county of Illinois (Scott) the Business Managers' Association of 

 Winchester offered a prize to one boy in each voting precinct ($10) 

 toward defraying his expenses at the winter short course at the State 

 Agricultural College. The method adopted in selecting the boy from 

 each precinct was to distribute a 14-page bulletin on Soil Fertility 

 among the young people in the public schools of the county. The 

 pupils were requested to study the bulletin and report at the next 

 meeting of the farmers' institute for examination, the one standing 

 highest in each voting precinct to receive the prize. 



This year fifteen boys appeared for examination, representing nine 

 votmg precincts. As a consequence, nine voting precincts in that 

 county will be represented in the college of agriculture in the State 

 University this year. This experiment, fairly successful in its first 

 trial, suggests wide possibilities, extending in many other directions, 

 in interesting young people in agricultural education. 



Another experiment, conducted in Carroll County, Md., under the 

 direction of the farmers' institute, was the emplo^mient of a peripa- 

 tetic teacher of agriculture to visit the country schools and speak to 

 the scholars on country life, particularly in its agricultural features. 



While the experiment was not as successful as its promoter wished, 

 owing to local conditions which were unfavorable, it nevertheless is a 

 feature of extension work that is entirely feasible, since substantially 

 the same methods have been in use in European countries for many 

 years, and everywhere with pronounced success. 



Another plan for securing a closer union between the institute and 

 the public schools was put in operation in Michigan with some 

 degree of success. Several county secretaries of farmers' institutes 

 made arrangements with the county superintendents of schools by 

 which the superintendents furnished speakers for a series of institutes 

 to continue from four to twelve days. During the forenoon of the 

 day upon which the institute was to be held the county sujierin- 

 tendent of schools, accompanied by the speaker which he furnished, 

 visited the schools in the neighborhood where the meeting was to be 

 held in the afternoon. Brief addresses were made to the pupils, and 

 then the teachers were requested to dismiss their schools, so that the 

 older pupils could attend the institutes in the afternoon and cA^ening. 

 At the afternoon and evenmg sessions of the institute the regular 

 speakers employed by the institute director delivered addresses on 

 agricultural subjects, and then the speaker furnished by the superin- 

 tendent of schools, frequently the superintendent himself taking 

 part, addressed the institute upon topics relating to rural schools and 

 country life. 



In California cooperation- between the institutes and the public 

 schools is formal and organized. A farmers' institute section has been 

 created in the State Teachers' Annual Convention. This section 



