400 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD, 



The piipers and discussions in the main were to the effect that the farmers' 

 institute occupies the position of field ajjent for agricultural education, that it 

 provides a most effective channel for carrying agricultural information directly 

 to the farmer who is unable to leave his occupation to go to school, and that it 

 should broaden its worlv until it embraces other more advanced forms of exten- 

 sion work, and extend its efforts until all rural people have opportunity to enjoy 

 its benefits. 



The general progress of the farmers' institute movement in the United 

 States was shown by the reports presented by the various State directors and by 

 the Farmers' Institute Specialist of this Department. The latter report 

 showed the number of sessions held by the regular institutes in 43 States and 

 Territories to have been 14,059, with an attendance at regular and special 

 institutes of 2,215,690. The appropriations to institutes in 46 States and 

 Territories were $320,564, and the total number of institute lecturers in the 

 employ of the State directors in 47 States and Territories was 1,118. In four 

 of the provinces of Canada— Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Ontario — 

 the number of half-day sessions was 7,266, with a total attendance of 321,963. 

 A remarkable development of institutes for women in Canada was shown by 

 the report of the Province of Ontario, where 3,978 sessions were held with 

 93,951 in attendance. 



A resolution was adopted indorsing the work already done in foi'warding the 

 Interests of farmers' institutes by this Department through the Farmers' 

 Institute Specialist, and requesting the executive committee of this association 

 TO confer as soon as practicable with the Seci'etary of Agriculture and with 

 this Office relative to the needs of this work, and to urge upon Congress the 

 appropriation of a sum sufficient to enable the Department adequately to 

 develop it. 



The officers elected for the ensuing year were : President, J. L. Ellsworth, 

 Boston, Mass.; vice-president, G. A. Putnam, Toronto, Ontario; secretary- 

 treasurer, John Hamilton, Washington, D. C. ; executive committee, the presi- 

 dent and the secretary ex-officio ; A. M. Soule, Athens, Ga. ; H. T. French, 

 Moscow, Idaho; F. H. Hall, Aurora, 111. 



First International Congress for the Repression of Adulteration of Alimentary 

 and Pharmaceutical Products. — This congress was held in Geneva, September 

 8-12, 1908. About 400 delegates were in attendance, 250 from France and the 

 remainder representing 28 other nations. The chief business of the congress 

 was the formulating of definitions of food and drug products fof adoption as an 

 international "codex alimentarius." The second congress will be held in Paris 

 in 1909. 



Miscellaneous. — Wm. Fawcett, Director of Public Gardens and Plantations, Ja- 

 maica, has retired. 



Botanhchcs Cnitralhlatt of August 11, 1908, records the death of Dr. F. Noll, 

 ]irofessor of botany at the University of Halle, at the age of 50 years. 



Sir Daniel Morris retired from the post of Imperial Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture for the West Indies, November 30. 



Philippe de A'ilmorin, the present head of the seed firm, Yilmorin, Andrieux et 

 Cie., and well known among horticulturists and plant breeders of this country, 

 has been nominated as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France. 



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