farmers' institutes in the united states. 323 



A brief report of the institute proceedings is prepared each year by 

 the State director and 12,500 copies are published and distributed by 

 the experiment station. ^luch of the instruction given in the insti- 

 tute is special. Viticulture, for example, was made a leading topic last 

 year in the grape-growing districts. In other sections devoted to 

 special crops a similar method is pursued and the consideration of 

 these crops is made a special feature, extending through all of the 

 institutes of that particular section. 



A lady lecturer on domestic science was regularly employed last 

 year, and some entire sessions were devoted to that subject with the 

 effect of increasing the interest and greatly extending the usefulness 

 of the institutes. 



COLORADO. 



Institute director. — Fred P. Johnson, superintendent of farmers' institutes, Denver. 



The first appropriation for farmers' institutes ever made in Colo- 

 rado was in April, 1905, and became available the following August. 

 The amount was $8,000 to cover two years and to be expended under 

 the direction of the State board of agriculture, which is also the gov- 

 erning board of the State Agricultural College. On the 1st of August, 

 1905, Mr. Fred P. Johnson was appointed superintendent of farmers' 

 institutes and since that time the work has been under his supervision, 

 assisted by, and in cooperation with, the dean of the faculty of agricul- 

 ture in the Agricultural College. 



The work during the year has been largely in the way of organiza- 

 tion and instruction. For this reason most of the time at the insti- 

 tute has been given up to the visiting lecturers. The usual method 

 has been to introduce a subject in a brief talk of fifteen or twenty 

 minutes and then induce the audience to ask questions and secure 

 addresses from local men covering their experiences along the lines 

 of the subjects under discussion. At the evening sessions, lectures 

 illustrated b}' a stereoscope are frequently given and at others the 

 audience is divided, the women and men holding separate sessions. 

 Another feature that has proven very helpful has been that of out- 

 door stock-judging lectures, at which stock is brought into a ring and 

 their points discussed by the lecturer and questions asked by the 

 audience. Another feature just introduced, is that of small institutes 

 on farms taking the people directly into the field and discussing the 

 subjects there in the midst of practical illustrations. The director 

 has also held normal institutes in which the meetings continue for 

 four or five days, consisting principally of field work and lectures upon 

 specified topics which are thoroughly exhausted during the institute. 

 For these institutes the director requires that at least twenty farmers 

 shall agree to attend all of the sessions and provide facilities for reach- 

 ing the fields. This is a departure from the old methods in conducting 

 normal institutes and its progress will be watched with interest. 



