SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART I. 5l 



ent help and even with the present funds if only a little more system 

 were infused into the work. 



And what shall that system be? 



My topic suggests circuit organization of institutes. I believe that 

 institutes in a number of counties, contiguous and accessible by the 

 means of communication, could hold their sessions at rapidly following 

 dates one after the other. Outside speakers could attend three or 

 more institutes at one trip. Inconvenience and discomfort in travel 

 to these speakers would be brought to a minimum. The expense account 

 of the institutes would not go so largely toward car fare and much 

 more work could be obtained for the same outlay. If there were some 

 outside management, the speakers suited to a locality could be sent 

 there. For instance, the speakers familiar with dairy topics could 

 be started along some line of railroad or part of the state where 

 those topics are live ones and the institutes in such part could be 

 arranged that these speakers might make a campaign there short, 

 decisive, and efficient, and at the same time economize in money and 

 time, and more, they could conserve In a very large degree the health, 

 the time, and the efficiency of these speakers. This is not all. The 

 people would hear discussions of their work that the local manage- 

 ment could not obtain for them. And still more, counties, which do 

 not now have institutes at all, would find themselves surrounded by, 

 and in the path of these institute evangels, and they would soon also 

 organize for this great work. Still more. A central or outside man- 

 agement with an experienced eye could attend in person many of these 

 institutes and discover talent, now latent, that could be brought out 

 and some of it could be encouraged to be used in larger work over 

 the counties of the state. We have men and women with talent, who 

 would, with a litte judicious prompting and instruction, become of 

 much help to our institutes and re-enforce the line of present workers. 



Many other benefits and advantages for the circuit organization of 

 institutes might be mentioned, but I desire not to be tedious, and will 

 say that I would retain as many of the good points of the present 

 organization as possible; but I would handle and supplement them by 

 some sort of system that would work larger efficiency and more 

 general institute work. Also, that would economize and conserve not 

 only our funds, but also the time, the talent, the comfort, and the 

 patience of the splendid men who go out and act the part of the 

 institute missionaries. 



Such system or management I believe to be workable in a district 

 composed of, saj', one-fourth of the state, or it might be expanded to 

 cover the entire commonwealth. Let us by all means retain our home 

 organizations, but let us have a little of the central authority, to give 

 to our efforts intelligent direction and larger returns in many ways than 

 we now get from the work. 



The splendid agriculture of Iowa, handled by a splendid agricultural 

 citizenship demands the infusion of larger measures of intelligence 



