15 



crease and the courses of study multiply. A greater or less number 

 of states can unite as circumstances warrant; the number can be re- 

 adjusted as experience demonstrates to be necessary. 



PLACE INSTITUTE EDUCATION WHERE IT BELONGS. 



The union system, moreover, will interest all of the colleges and 

 experiment stations in the institute work; will give the advantage 

 of wise counsel in the preparation of its 'courses of study; will se- 

 cure uniformity in teaching and in the subjects taught and will place 

 the moulding of institute education where it legitimately belongs, 

 in the hands of institutions whose distinctive work is to give instruc- 

 tion in agriculture. 



INSTRUCTION BY LECTURERS. 



The instruction in such a school would of necessity be given by 

 lectures. To make these lectures most useful in their immediate 

 effect as well as permanently valuable, and also that the time of the 

 professors and students may be most advantageously used, full notes 

 and a syllabus should be prepared and printed by the instructors for 

 distribution to their classes before the lectures begin. No lecturer 

 should be engaged to teach who would not supply such a syllabus. 

 It is important that the students shall have the lectures throughout 

 in the exact form in which the lecturer presents them, inasmuch as 

 many of the facts given are to be quoted in their subsequent work 

 as teachers in the farmers' institutes of the country. 



INITIATING THE MOVEMENT. 



Who shall take the initiative in the inauguration of such a set of 

 schools? First The plan should be approved by the American As 

 sociation of Farmers' Institute Workers, and second It should be 

 taken up by the National Association of Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations and thoroughly discussed in all of its details. 

 If found to be feasible, a meeting of the State institute directors, 

 with representatives of the National Association of Agricultural Col- 

 leges and Experiment Stations could be had, the plans be perfected, 

 the states be grouped, teachers be selected, and all arrangements 

 made for the immediate opening of the schools. 



Such a set of schools properly equipped will do as much to assist 

 farming people as any other single institution in existence, import- 

 ant as many of them are. The providing for the instructing of men 

 and women out on the farms so that they may understand the mys- 

 teries of their occupation, teaching thjem to believe in it and love it, 

 is worthy of the efforts of our most earnest and capable educators, 

 and the maintenance of such a system is a duty which each state will, 

 according to its ability, no doubt cheerfully undertake. 



