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18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



made and which must rely for its support upon the annual appropria- 

 tion of $15,000 received from the United States, supplemented by the 

 limited aid the University is able to render. 



The Farmers' Institute work under the very efficient management of 

 Superintendent W. C. Latta, has undergone a very notable extension with 

 greatly added interest since the increase of the appropriation to $10,000 

 per annum as the following exhibit will show. 



During the year ending June 30, 1902, institutes were held as follows: 



Annual institutes (one in each county) 92 



District special meetings 4 



Supplemental (two days each in sixty-two counties) .... 74 



Supplemental (one day each in eleven counties) 21 



Total 191 



Total attendance at ninety -two institutes 23,897 



Average attendance at annual institutes 259 



I have not full data as to the attendance at the supplemental insti- 

 tutes. Many of these meetings were quite as successful as the annual 

 institutes. They were so placed as to accommodate a distinctly new class 

 of farmers to whom the annual meetings are not usually accessible. 



In addition to the above, a Woman's Conference was held in Lafayette 

 in August, 1901, and a general conference of institute workers in October 

 of the same year. 



The figures given above do not adequately set forth the growth of the 

 institute work. The local officers in several counties are undergoing a 

 process of education which enables them to prepare better programs 

 from year to year. The institute speakers are not only acquiring added 

 experience, but increased facility and felicity of expression. They now 

 have a number of institute woi'kers who will rank well in comparison 

 with such men and women in other States. 



The interest in the work is well sustained. Now and then a meeting 

 is poorly attended, due chiefly to the inefficiency of the chairman in the 

 previous work of advertising. 



There is an encouraging tendency to form woman's auxiliaries of the 

 several institutes and a growing demand for women institute workers 

 who can be as helpful to the farmers' wives and daughters as the men 

 workers are to the farmers themselves. 



The institutes are just entering upon their first year for which they 

 receive full $10,000 to expend in institute work. The institute schedule 

 shows that in addition to the ninety-two annual institutes, which have 

 been held heretofore, arrangements have been made for seventy-six sup- 

 plemental meetings, making a total of ISO already aiTanged for. This 

 number will be considerably increased, so that by the end of the current 



