REPORT OF SECRETARY. ^ II 



today is lightened because of the efforts of our predecessors of thirty 

 and forty years ago. Shall we do our work so that it will lighten the 

 burdens of those to come after us ? These and many others are sufficient 

 reasons for our continued efforts, 



farmers' institutes. 



The first effort looking to the organization of Farmers' Institutes in 

 Missouri was made by the Board of Agriculture at the annual meeting 

 held in St. Louis, September 9, 1869. The corresponding secretary, 

 Hon. Chas. W. Murtfeldt, suggested the advisability of inaugurating 

 farmers' institute work. Hon. Norman J. Colman, who was then as 

 now a member of the board, offered a resolution embodying the sugges- 

 tion of the secretary and pledging the support of the members. The 

 resolution was adopted but, evidently for lack of funds, no meetings 

 were held. The next effort made to organize the institutes was at 

 the annual meeting held November i, 1882. Prof. J. W. Sanborn, then 

 Secretary of the Board, and Dean of the Agricultural College, urged the 

 importance of institute work, and after some deliberation the Board 

 authorized the beginning of the work, and in accordance with that ac- 

 tion the first Farmers' Institute meeting was held in Independence on 

 December 18 and 19, 1882. From that time on a few meetings were 

 held each year, conducted largely by the Secretary and members of the 

 Board, receiving no pay except traveling expenses, which were paid 

 from the contingent funds of the Board. 



In 1 89 1 the Legislature made the first appropriation specifically 

 for institute work. Since the first organization the institute has had a 

 steady development, and during the season for 1903-4 there were held 

 one hundred and forty-seven meetings with a total attendance of thirty 

 thousand two hundred and twenty people, and with twenty-eight lecturers 

 en the staff. Up to this time only fifty meetings have been held in the 

 season of 1904-5. On account of the great interest in the World's Fair 

 and the excitement over the presidential campaign it was thought better 

 to begin later and extend the work more into the winter. The lecturers 

 report an increased interest of those present, although the attendance 

 has not been up to the high average of the year before. 



Subjects relating to the improvement of the corn crop which were 

 discussed at the meetings in every county in 1903 are bearing the ex- 

 pected fruit, and more attention is being given to breeding and selecting 

 seed corn than ever before. I beg the Board's consideration of two 

 suggestions I wish to make for the improvement of the institutes : 



First — I suggest the organization of women's institutes, either as 



