310 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



this and scheduled each of its stops for two hours. This has given 

 more time to confer wdth those who attend the meetings to dehver 

 lectures and to give explanations. The other method was the utiliza- 

 tion of the institute railway special as an ''emergency train" designed 

 to cover as large a territory as possible in a brief period. This was 

 for the purpose of disseminating a single item of information of 

 special importance which the farming people needed to know imme- 

 diately, in order that they may successfully meet the new conditions 

 which the emergency has brought about. The train is delayed in its 

 sending out until just before the farmers are ready to perform the 

 operation which it is desired to influence. In North Dakota, for 

 instance, this took the form of a "wheat rust special" sent out imme- 

 diately before the wheat-seeding period. The lecturers showed the 

 rust in its forms of attack and gave remedies and methods of treat- 

 ment of the seed, teaching the farmers how to treat it themselves and 

 urging them to adopt the methods recommended. The timeliness 

 of the information made it more impressive than if attention had been 

 called to the matter months before. Many farmers treated their seed 

 according to the directions who would not have done so had it not 

 been for the somewhat sensational method, and more than all the 

 well-timed period of calling attention to its importance. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF FARMERS' INSTITUTE 



WORKERS. 



The eleventh annual meeting of the American Association of Farm- 

 ers' Institute Workers was held at Baton Rouge, La., November 

 12-14, 1906. Thirty-seven States and Territories were represented 

 and 4 of the provinces of Canada, with a total attendance of 116. 

 Statistical reports showing the condition and progress of the work 

 were presented by 34 States and Territories and 5 provinces. 



The association, at its meeting in Washington, provided for the 

 appointment of standing committees on institute organization and 

 methods, institute lecturers, cooperation with other educational 

 agencies, movable schools of agriculture, boys' and girls' institutes, 

 women's institutes, and legislation. The reports of these committees 

 constituted a most important feature of the Baton Rouge meeting. 

 The committees had given a good deal of careful thought to the sub- 

 jects assigned them, and their reports, consequently, contained nuiny 

 well-considered suggestions. The great importance of the thorough 

 organization of the institute was dwelt upon with much emphasis 

 and particularity. The president, in his annual address, referring 

 to this feature of institute work, said : 



I am thoroughly convinced that the crying need is for stronger organization among 

 farmers themselves, calling for regular meetings every month or oftener in each local- 

 ity, conducted and managed entirely by local help, with an occasional outsider who 



