ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 653 



farmers' [institutes fob ioxing people. 



In order, therefore, that opportunity to become acquainted with agri- 

 cultural operations may be given to those who have left the public school 

 and from whose ranks the future farmers and their wives must be sup- 

 plied, the farmers' institutes in several states have organized and are 

 now conducting what are known as "institutes for young people." The 

 majority of these, however, are not as yet institutes in the sense in which 

 the work of the farmers' institute has come to be defined. They are in 

 reality boys' and girls' clubs conducted in the same manner as those organ- 

 ized and operated by the public schools. 



That the institutes should have taken up the work for young people 

 along lines similar to those of the schools is not surprising when it is 

 considered that the movement has just begun and the best methods of 

 dealing with it have not been clearly outlined or thoroughly developed. 

 The great need among young people beyond the school age for agricul- 

 tural instruction was so urgent that it could not be longer delayed, conse- 

 quently the institute undertook to do what it could to supply that need 

 without waiting to make thorough previous study of the conditions or of 

 the methods best adapted to improving these conditions. It simply 

 started, and then following the lines of least resistance, which have been 

 the methods that were pursued by the schools, it has gone on until now 

 a radical departure from these methods is seen to be necessary and is 

 proposed. 



Because of the fundamental difficulty in securing teachers capable of 

 giving vocational instruction in agriculture in the rural schools, and from 

 the fact that after the scholars leave school no provision has been made 

 for giving them opportunity to receive such instruction, the farmers' insti- 

 tute has undertaken the training in agriculture of rural children after 

 leaving school. In doing this it has found it necessary to drop from its 

 system of instruction the purely educational feature and devote itself 

 strictly to giving vocational instruction. Such studies and practice, there- 

 fore, as the institute utilizes, have in view the perfecting of the individ- 

 ual in his vocation. The institute system, therefore, partakes more nearly 

 than any other of the trade-school method, and is intended for youth 

 above 14 years of age. It differs from the work carried on by other 

 agencies employed in training country youth in that its primary object 

 is to build up a better agriculture by teaching young people methods for 

 increasing crops, improving animals, restoring worn-out soils, and dis- 

 posing in a profitable way the products of farms. It is undertaking to 

 teach youth how to make money in agriculture. It is endeavoring to do 

 this by giving them information respecting the raising of crops, the breed- 

 ing and care of animals, and by bringing them to appreciate the value 

 of organization and cooperation in securing enlarged political and com- 

 mercial advantages as well as better social and intellectual privileges 

 and by teaching them how to secure and use these advantages. Ey un- 

 dertaking this work the farmers' institute will occupy a field separate 

 and distinct from all others, and one which is not now covered by any 

 other organization. It will become the connecting link between the agri- 



