302 REPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



There was a corresponding increase in the number of lecturers 

 employed by the State directors upon the regular corps of instructors. 

 The number of lecturers in 1905 was 995; in 1906 this had reached 

 1,225, an increase of 230. 



The money available for institutes in 1906 was considerably more 

 than for the previous year. The amount available in 41 States in 



1905 was .1225,738.89, and in 1906 in 45 States $269,672.38, an 

 increase of $43,933.49. By comparing only States that have carried 

 on institutes during both years there is shown an increase of $35,072.90 

 in those States in 1906 over 1905, or a little more than 15 per cent. 



For several years there has been a decided and steady advance in 

 the amount contributed for institute support outside of the State 

 appropriations. In 1903 the amount from this source was $9,345; in 

 1904 it increased to $11,394.91; in 1905 it was $20,556.76, and in 



1906 it was $42,550.39, or 455 per cent more than the amount con- 

 tributed in 1903. 



This general increase in the appropriations for institutes has ena- 

 bled the institute directors to improve their work b}' securing better 

 teachers on the instruction force, but at the same time this improve- 

 ment has slightly increased the average cost of the institutes per ses- 

 sion. The average cost per session in 1903 was $23.32. In 1906 it 

 was $28.12, an increase of $4.80. The attendance at the special insti- 

 tutes reported by 19 States numbered 85,762. Fifteen States reported 

 round-up meetings with an attendance of about 24,598. In 21 States 

 railroad specials equipped with agricultural experts were sent out. 

 In some of these States these specials were run under the auspices of 

 the farmers' institutes, while in others they were independent of the 

 institutes and consequently were not reported by the institute direct- 

 ors. Reports, however, were received from the following 13 States, 

 giving the approximate attendance upon the institute special trains: 

 Connecticut, 2,500; Illinois, 54,450; Kansas, 10,000; Maine, 55,000; 

 Maryland, 3,125; Massachusetts, 6,000; Michigan, 5,000; Minnesota, 

 900; Mississippi, 9,127; Nebraska, 34,092; North Dakota, 17,696; Ver- 

 mont, 10,000 ; Virginia, 8,000— making a total of 215,890. The aggre- 

 gate attendance for the year at the regular institutes, the round-up 

 meetings, the special institutes, and the railroad specials amounted to 

 1,625,422, about twice the number reported in attendance for the 

 year 1903-4. 



The teaching force of the State institute directors has enlarged from 

 924 expert lecturers in 1903 to 1,225 in 1906. The number of lec- 

 turers supplied by the agricultural colleges and experiment stations 

 has increased from 196 in 1903 to 342 in 1906, and the time contrib- 

 uted in the same period by these lecturers in reported to have 

 increased from 1,666 days to 3,119. 



