NOTES. 97 



Province for the year giving tlie number of sessions of women's institutes 

 at 5,483, and the attendance at 140,388. 



One of the interesting features in the general session of the association was 

 an address by P. C. Parks, of Claris University, South Atlanta, Ga., upon the 

 condition of the negro farmers of the South. He pointed out the economic 

 effects of inefficiency among the negro farm laborers, and that their lack of 

 skill and knowledge of farming operations now seriously affect the prosperity 

 of southern agriculture. Although largely engaged in farming, they are almost 

 wholly without intelligent direction. Very few of them understand diversified 

 farming, and they are also unable or unwilling to read the agricultural papers 

 and magazines. None the less, these negro farm workers, he believed, were one 

 of the most valuable potential assets of the South, and that their development 

 is of exceedingly great importance, not only in the betterment of the social 

 conditions that exist among the negroes themselves, but in the uplifting and 

 improvement of the business of agriculture. He advised the organization in 

 each State of a special department of farmers' institutes for negro farmers. 

 Such an organization, he stated, would arouse interest in self-improvement, and 

 while doing a great service to the race would be of practical usefulness in a 

 financial way to the State. A resolution was adopted providing for an inves- 

 tigation of the general condition of the negro farmers of the South, the report 

 to be presented at the next meeting of the association. 



Other resolutions adopted by the association recommend the holding of ex- 

 perimental institutes for young people and that greater consideration be given 

 in institute work to subjects relating to home life, either by special women's 

 meetings or in the regular sessions. The employment of experts by the year 

 to give personal instruction and demonstrations, organize farm clubs, etc., was 

 indorsed. The desirability of offering in the Graduate School of Agriculture 

 a course of instruction in institute and other forms of extension work was 

 suggested. 



The belief of the association in the importance of adequate appropriations 

 for the farmers' institute work of this Office was again affirmed, as was also 

 the position of the association with reference to federal legislation for exten- 

 sion work in agriculture. Granting the franking privilege for agricultural ex- 

 tension literature was advocated, as well as federal aid in the building of public 

 roads. 



The officers of the association chosen for the ensuing year are A. M. Soule, 

 of the Georgia College, president ; W. T. Clarke, of the University of California, 

 vice president; John Hamilton of this Office, secretary-treasurer; and Val 

 Keyser, of the University of Nebraska, Franklin Dye, secretary of the New 

 Jersey State Board of Agriculture, and J. H. Miller, of the Kansas College, 

 members of the executive committee. 



Association of Official Seed Analysts.— The third annual meeting of this asso- 

 ciation was held in Washington, D. C, November 14 and 15, 1910. The program 

 consisted of papers dealing with the results of studies on germination and seed 

 structure and of conferences on methods and apparatus for seed testing and 

 on seed legislation. The association adopted a constitution at this meeting and 

 passed resolutions favoring the establishment of a journal of agricultural re- 

 search for the publication of original technical reports of the scientific in- 

 vestigations made by the federal agricultural experiment stations, and the enact- 

 ment of a national law to prevent the importation into the United States of 

 agricultural seeds unfit for seeding purposes. 



The officers elected for the ensuing year are: E. H. Jenkins, president; L. H. 

 Pammel, vice-president: E. Brown, secretary; and H. L. Bolley and H. W. 

 Barre, additional members of the executive committee. The committee on seed 



