34 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



out from that department, on agriculture; there were over forty- 

 hxe thousand pages ; there were over eleven million separate doc- 

 uments sent out. There were six and a half million of those 

 that were specially prepared for the farmers. Hov^ many did 

 you gentlemen get? 



A Member : I got a wagon load ; I never used them. 



Mr. Hamilton : The farmers institute has got to take the 

 knov^ledge these publications contain by word of mouth to the 

 men who need the information. This is the great mission of 

 the institute teacher; to take the scientific knowledge and dis- 

 tribute it among the men who need it. 



A Member : I would like to ask about what per cent of the 

 farmers — where an institute is held — come to the institute? 



Mr. Hamilton : That depends on the size of the hall. If 

 the hall is big, there will be five hundred or more; and it de- 

 pends upon what a man has to say. 



Henry Wallace : Of course, I came in during the address 

 and did not hear all of it. I am a little bit interested in this talk 

 of the consolidation of institutes. That question came up fif- 

 teen years ago wdien the filrst institute organization was held 

 in Iowa. Secretary Wilson and I were there and we made a 

 determined fight when this institute bill was passed to get a 

 central system; we absolutely failed to do it. We agreed to 

 wait and see how the thing w^ould w^ork out. Now, I have had 

 a pretty large experience in the institutes of this State and in 

 institutes of other states adjoining, except Missouri, and there 

 are advantages on both sides. I find, when I go to Wisconsin 

 or Minnesota, where they have this regular institute system that 

 the farmers do not take the interest in it they do here in Iowa. 

 They go there and open their mouths and have information 

 pumped into them; they are like a calf you are trying to feed. 

 But you trust the calf you are trying to feed and when that 

 sucks, you have gc^t the difference bet\\ een the Iowa and other 

 systems. They all have their own way in Iowa. 



Let me tell my friend, when he meets an Iowa institute, he 

 will meet about as big a batch of men and as intelligent a bcd}- 

 of men, and the man that can stand up before an institute, must 



