350 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMEISTT STATIONS. 



The annual appropriation for farmers' meetings or institutes is $5,000. 

 Thirty-eight institutes were held last year, consisting of 76 sessions, 

 with a total attendance of 7,962 persons. A "better farming special " 

 was run for one week. During this time it made fifty-one stops. The 

 cars were crowded at every station. The estimated number in attend- 

 ance upon this train during this trip was 10,000. The experiment 

 station furnished four lecturers for the institutes who gave thirty-one 

 days to the work. A report of the institutes is prepared each year 

 by the secretary and 3,000 copies are printed and distributed. 



VIRGINIA. 



Institute directors. — G. W. Koiner, commissioner of agriculture, Richmond; A. M. 

 Soule, director agricultural experiment station and secretary Virginia State Farm- 

 ers' Institute, Blacksl)urg. 



Farmers institutes in Virginia are under the direction of the State 

 board of agriculture which is composed of a representative from each 

 of the ten Congressional districts. Five hundred dollars is appro- 

 priated annuall}^ for institutes in each district, and is expended under 

 the direction of the representative of the board of the district. The 

 only part of the work made the official duty of the secretary of the 

 board is to receive the reports of these members and prepare them 

 for publication. He has no fund to use for institute purposes out- 

 side of the appropriation to the directors, and consequently has no 

 money to draw upon for the payment of speakers or other expenses. 



Tliree years ago there was organized at Roanoke, Va., the ^ irginia 

 State Farmers' Institute. This body is composed of representative 

 farmers from all parts of the State who meet in a general convention 

 once a year and discuss the needs of agriculture, and visit the agri- 

 cultural college and experiment station at Blacksburg. The attend- 

 ance this year was about 1,200, of whom 1,050 visited the college at 

 Blacksburg on a special train provided by the Norfolk and Western 

 Ilailwa}^ The institute has a regular membership of about 600, 

 Fifty-five of the counties of the State are represented upon it by 

 county vice-presidents who are all members of the association. The 

 director of the agricultural experiment station is the secretar}^ of the 

 institute. 



During the year there was sent out a special seed train through 

 a portion of tlu^ tobacco region of the State, and also through the 

 Piedmont section and the Shenandoali Valley as well. Stops of 

 thirty minutes were made at each station where meetings had been 

 advertised. About 8,000 farmers were reached in this way. There 

 were 35 regular institute meetings held during the year, composed of 

 65 sessions attended as reported by the institute director by 19,500 

 persons. 



