48 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



A great deal of correspondence was required in order to get the 

 officers interested in the new scheme, and Mr. Simpson wrote per-, 

 sonal letters to the different secretaries urging that they be in attend- 

 ance at the meeting. 



The day of the meeting arrived and eleven counties were represented. 

 Mr. John Hamilton, Institute Specialist of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture was present and gave his views of the necessity of cen- 

 tral organizations of institutes, stating that Iowa was the last state 

 to form some plan by which institutes could be held to better advan- 

 tage. 



After a thorough discussion of the matter a permanent organization 

 was formed, and officers elected. 



The purpose of our organization is to better the existing conditions 

 of institutes, by first placing them in groups and circuits of four coun- 

 ties each, that outside speakers may be used from one to another at 

 a saving of their time and expense. For example, a speaker has 

 been called from the Agricultural College to address an institute in 

 Jackson county one day and the following day he would be called to 

 Mills county. His expenses would necessarily be very heavy, to say 

 nothing of his having to ride all night, bumped around without sleep, 

 and expected to speak the next day as well as if he had had a good 

 night's rest. No one will dispute me in saying that under these con- 

 ditions it is impossible to do good work. 



The object in grouping them in four counties is to call that an 

 institute week, enabling a speaker to leave home the first of the week 

 make four institutes and get back home the last of the week. 



Another object of our organization is to encourage local talent, 

 for there is no institute so good as the one that enjoys a great amount 

 of local talent. Our very best institutes of today are the ones that 

 have this home talent, as people feel more free in coming out in the 

 discussions and greater good is derived. 



Institutes should be made more educational instead of merely social 

 entertainments, and we believe that organization will do much to fur- 

 ther this end. 



Another advantage organization has over the present system is that 

 dates and location, as well as speakers, can be selected far enough 

 ahead so that the institutes will not have to be made up in a day or 

 two, as is now being done by many officers. They will have to decide 

 what subjects and speakers they want, and their dates will be set far 

 enough ahead so that they will be more known and a better attendance 

 secured. 



More time should be taken, than most institutes now give, in select- 

 ing their subjects, for as a general rule the local officers wait until 

 the very last moment before they decide what thoy will have, and then 

 the time is too short to get the best talent, or some other institute 

 has secured the speaker they desire, and they have to take what they 

 can get, while if some system was used they would have to make 



