THE FARMERS' INSTITUTES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1906. 



By John Hamilton, 



Farmers'' Institute Specialist, Office of Experiment Stations. 



The condition of the farmers' institute work of this country for the 

 year ended June 30, 1906, as indicated by the reports sent in by the 

 State directors, is quite gratif}dng. All of the States and Territories 

 excepting Alaska now have institute organizations and all except 

 Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, and "Washington held institutes dur- 

 ing the 3 ear. 



The failure of these States to hold institutes was due to theix 

 respective legislatures having neglected to make necessary appropria- 

 tions for their expenses. This interruption in their institute work is 

 doubtless only temporary, since in most of the instances there does 

 not seem to have been any serious dissatisfaction on the part of coun- 

 try people with the character or conduct of the institutes. The fail- 

 ure of the appropriations appears to have been due to conditions not 

 likely to recur. 



INSTITUTE STATISTICS AND PROGRESS. 



The 45 States and Territories reporting show an aggregate of 

 11,409 sessions of regular institutes held diu-ing the year, with a 

 total attendance of 1,299,172 persons. The attendance is computed 

 by counting all present at each session and then adding these together 

 for the total. This method is open to the criticism that it is inaccu- 

 rate, since the same persons may be counted twice, or even several 

 times. While this is true, the method nevertheless enables the actual 

 condition of the work to be more nearly ascertained than the old 

 method of taking the attendance at the largest session and adding to 

 it one-half of those present at the next largest for a total. Institutes 

 of only one or two sessions under the old method of computation uften 

 had the same attendance to their credit as those composed of five or 

 six sessions — a manifest untruth and injustice. 



By comparing the number of sessions held in 1906 with those held 

 the previous year there is shown an increase of 854 sessions in favor of 

 1906, and by dividing the number in attendance in 1906 by the num- 

 ber of sessions held there is shown an average attendance at each ses- 

 sion of 114 persons, as against 94 in 1905. 



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