farmers' institutes in the united states. 331 



IOWA. 



Institute director. — J. C. Simpson, secretary State board of agriculture, Des Moines. 



In Iowa the institutes are held by the count}^ institute organiza- 

 tions independently of each other and without State supervision. 

 Each county society, however, is required to file a brief report in the 

 office of the State department of agriculture if it desires a voice in the 

 annual agricultural convention. Before any local institute society 

 can receive its appropriation from the county treasurer, amounting 

 to a sum not to exceed $75 annually, the managers must file affidavits, 

 with the bills of actual expenses attached, with the State auditor, to 

 be approved by liim. 



The reports as far as they have been sent in this year to the secre- 

 tary of the department of agriculture show that 402 sessions of 

 institutes were held during the year, having an attendance of 66,959. 

 The total expenses for the 69 counties reporting out of a total of 

 99 in the State were $8,096.06. An annual meeting called a State 

 Farmers' Institute was held in Des Moines in December, at which 

 there was an attendance of about 200 persons. Some of the best 

 papers at the institutes are collected annually by the secretary of the 

 board, and are published in the Yearbook of agriculture, issued by the 

 agricultural department. 



KANSAS. 



Institute director. — J. H. Miller, superintendent of farmers' institutes, Manhattan. 



In Kansas, in addition to the State appropriation of $2,000 annually 

 made to the State agricultural college for farmers' institute purposes, 

 each county institute is entitled to $50 annually, for meeting its local 

 expenses. Five hundred and twenty-two sessions of institutes were 

 held last year, with an attendance of 27,300. 



The agricultural college and experiment station at Manhattan 

 have taken very active interest in this work. Twenty-one members 

 of their force of teachers and experiment station experts were engaged 

 in lecturing before institute audiences during the past year. Their 

 work was supplemented by a force of local speakers numbering 406, 

 who either read papers or delivered addresses. In addition to the 

 regular institutes there were 14 that were independent, having a 

 reported attendance of 8,000. A corn and wheat special was run by 

 the Rock Island Railroad for twelve days. During that time the 

 train made 135 stops. It consisted of one baggage car, two lecture 

 cars, and one living car. Four members of the agricultural experi- 

 ment station force accompanied the train as lecturers, and during the 

 period delivered 236 addresses and met 10,000 people. 



County institutes have been regularly organized in 85 counties, and 

 boys' corn contests were held in over 50 counties, which included in 

 their membership about 6,000 boys. 



