SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 81 



The President : We will now listen to a paper by Mr. Don L. 

 Berrj' of Warren county. 



WHAT THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE IS DOING FOR THE FARMER. 



DON L. BERRY, IXDIANOLA, lA. 



While it would be impossible to get information that could be set down 

 in figures as to what the institutes are doing for the farmer, we can at 

 least saj' of them, as Mr. Wallace says of feeding soft coal to hogs: 

 "They seem to want it, therefore they must need it and it must do them 

 some good." 



If the farmers' institutes are of no advantage it is difficult to explain 

 their rapid growth within the last few years. Today no less than 

 eighty-four .county institutes out of the ninety -nine counties in the State 

 are reporting to this board of agriculture. The organization of farmers' 

 institutes has become so widespread that the national department of agri- 

 culture has established a division for the special purpose of overseeing 

 them. It is, therefore, plain that the spread of institute work is not 

 confined to Iowa. In fact, it is a question as to whether Iowa is not a 

 little behind, at least in the management of her institutes. 



As I said in the oeginning, it is almost impossible to get tabulated 

 or collected information on what the institutes are doing in this State, 

 while many of the other States require quite full reports to be submitted 

 to the State board. For information as to the work done in their sections 

 of the State and for suggestions in the preparation of this paper I must 

 acknowledge my indebtedness to Secretary Oberdorf of the Bremer County 

 Institute, and to Secretary Miller of Washington county. 



A very fine line shows where the work of the State experiment station 

 leaves off and that of the institute begins. The agricultural press also 

 comes in for a share of the credit for the advancement in agriculture, 

 which is self-evident on every hand. Many of our best publishers have 

 farms, which are nothing less than private experiment stations. 



We might sum up all these influences and their results under the head 

 of the spirit of agricultural education. The results of this need not be 

 set forth in detail. Scarcely a farmer in the State has failed to come 

 under the influence, at least to some extent, of this spirit of scientific 

 or more intelligent farming. The seed corn trains and the wide dis- 

 semination of literature by the periodical press and the State and na- 

 tional bulletins are credited with adding several millions of bushels to 

 the Iowa corn crop of this year. 



This campaign for better farming has put a check on the wasteful 

 methods which formerly prevailed on too many of our farms. The dem- 

 onstration of the need of conserving the powers of our soil has led to a 

 more general and systematic rotation of crops, to the careful saving and 

 hauling of manure and to the feeding of the crop on the farm. The well- 

 prepared tables of the cost of producing crops and live stock, put out by 

 the experiment station, have led many farmers to see the wisdom of 

 keeping books with fields and herds; that is, to a better business man- 

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