62 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



came in with their corn. We arranged the premium list so that 

 nearly all the boys got something. 



Of course, we couldn't get along very well without the ladies' 

 session ; that comes the last day. 



The President : We have with us today -the first lady dele- 

 gate that has ever attended a farmers institute here. Mrs. Hurl- 

 but of O'Brien county. We would like to hear from her. 



Mrs. Hurlbut : I want to say to you right here, that I didn't 

 expect to be with you in this session. Our delegate was Mr. 

 Zimmerman, of Sanborn. He was taken sick with rheumatism. 

 He wasn't taken sick quite soon enough, because he didn't give 

 me time to get ready. 



I may perhaps tell you how we organized our woman's ses- 

 sion. Of course, we got off by ourselves in the court house; we 

 didn't want any of the men folks around at all ; we were afraid of 

 criticism. We elected a president — we call them vice-presi- 

 dents — for different parts of the county. We elected one in the 

 southeast, one in the southwest, one in the northwest and one in 

 the northeast. We had those presidents send in to the secretary 

 the names of people whom they thought were capable of doing the 

 work we wanted done. 



Mr. Wing : Did you give every woman an office? 



Mrs. Hurlbut: We tried to. 



By the way, we had Mrs. Squires, from Spencer with us. I 

 think the Secretary is acquainted with the lady. She did our 

 work of organization. 



As to the dates of our institute, I will have to tell you how we 

 do that. We generally decide on a day we would like; then we 

 try to get our outside help, and if we cannot get them on those 

 dates, we change them, regardless of moon-light nights or any- 

 thing else. I will say, our dates for this year are the 7th, 8th 

 and 9th of February; subject to change, however. 



We encourage local talent as much as we can, for two differ- 

 ent reasons. We realize, if we do not encourage local talent, we 

 will be embarassed financially. We prefer to have such local tal- 

 ent as we can, in order to bring out all the material possible in the 

 neighborhood. We will have a woman's session this year again. 

 Last year was our first. 



