50 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



VALUE OF CIRCUIT ORGANIZATION AND CO-OPERATION OF 

 FARMER'S INSTITUTES. 



F. D. STEEN, WEST LIBERTY, IOWA. 



Circuit organization and co-operation of institutes is of value 



1. To ttie management of ttie local institute. 



2. To the institute worker or the person from eyond the county, 

 who addresses the local institute. 



3. To the people of the local institute. 



4. Indirectly, to the producers of the state and, hence, to the 

 entire commonwealth. 



The present institute organization of the state is confined almost 

 exclusively to county lines, or at best only to such and contiguous ter- 

 ritory. The local institute management fixes the date and place of 

 holding the institute, and then tries to obtain outside help that is 

 available and is known to the local officers. Great difficulty has been 

 experienced by these persons in securing speakers, and the considera- 

 tion of having the proper speaker suited to a fitting topic for the 

 locality, has to be dropped very often entirely. The local manager 

 is mostly very well satisfied when he gets outside help at all. He 

 does the best he can in the very limited sphere in which he is familiar, 

 to obtain speakers. He can hardly select topics that are suited to 

 his people and then find speakers who are the best suited to those 

 topics. He learns that other counties have already engaged the men 

 lie wants for that date; for there are many institute managements in 

 the state, and each operates for itself, each tries to get what is deemed 

 best for its own locality. 



In the present arrangement the local institute is supreme; the 

 state at large knows nothing of its affairs, nothing of who is to address 

 it, nothing of the date of the meeting, nothing of what questions 

 are discussed, and generally, the state does well to receive enough of 

 a report from the local institute, so that the necessary funds may be 

 forthcoming. In short, the institute work in Iowa is organized along 

 strictly' democratic lines, using that word not in its ordinary political 

 sense but in its dictionary meaning, namely, each local institute is 

 entirely independent and supreme to say and do what it wants to. 



Now, this would be well if it brought about the best results. If it 

 gave to our people such efficient work in the lines indicated no one 

 would think of any change. But Iowa stands far in the van of agri- 

 cultural interests and thought and I believe that in the institute work 

 we are far from getting the benefits which we might derive there- 

 from if a somewhat different system and management were to obtain. 

 I would be the last to do or desire to do anjrthing that would detract 

 in the least or injure in any way the splendid work now being done 

 in this line. But I believe that much more can be done with our pres- 



