678 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



canization in 1809 of the Columbian Agricultural Society, which was 

 tne foundation of the national organization finally formed in 1852. 

 From 1809 to 1812, inclusive, this society held six fairs, at which 

 cattle, woolen goods, cotton cloth, fancy work, clothing, bed linen, 

 sewing thread, carpeting, rugs, dyes, etc., were exhibited. 



Early Acts of Congress. Congress first took an active interest 

 in the promotion of agriculture in 1839, when, on the recommenda- 

 tion of Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, an ap- 

 propriation of $1,000 was made for the collection of agricultural 

 statistics, investigation for promoting agricultural and rural econ- 

 omy, and the procurement of cuttings and seeds for gratuitous dis- 

 tribution among the farmers. This work was gradually developed ; 

 investigations in entomology, chemistry, and botany were provided 

 for by 1855, and the way was thus opened for the establishment of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture in 1862. 



In February, 1889, the Department of Agriculture was erected 

 into an Executive Department under a Secretary, who is a mem- 

 ber of the Cabinet. (Y. B. 1899 and 1894.) 



Farmers' Institutes. Meetings which the general public and 

 especially farmers were invited to attend were held at a compara- 

 tively early day under the auspices of the local or State agricultural 

 societies. Out of these meetings grew a more or less clearly defined 

 institution for the technical education of the adult farmer, now 

 known as the farmers' institute. While the character of the insti- 

 tutes is such as to make it impracticable to assign any definite date 

 as the time of differentiation from other farmers' assemblies, yet 

 the period following the organization of the agricultural colleges 

 under the Merrill Act of 1862 seems to have been the time when 

 the farmers' institutes took a distinct form, and under that name 

 began to receive the patronage of the States. Thus, in 1862 the 

 Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture held a public meeting of 

 four days' duration, and in 1866 the Connecticut State Board of 

 Agriculture held its first farmers' convention for lectures and dis- 

 cussion. In 1870 the newly organized State Board of Agriculture 

 of New Hampshire began a series of farmers' meetings, and the fol- 

 lowing year Vermont followed this example. The same year the 

 Massachusetts board requested the twenty-nine agricultural societies 

 of the State to organize annual meetings, to be denominated the 

 Farmers' Institutes of Massachusetts, and several societies began at 

 once to hold such meetings. About the same time institutes were 

 inaugurated in Kansas, and a little later in Michigan, by the agri- 

 cultural colleges of these States. Other States joined the move- 

 ment, and legislatures began to make appropriations to maintain 

 the institutes. 



In 1885, when the board of regents of the University of Wis- 

 consin organized a course of institutes, a special officer, called the 

 superintendent of farmers' institutes, was appointed to plan and 

 manage them, and this arrangement was afterwards confirmed by 

 the State. While the institutes are carried on under varied auspices 

 in the different sections of the country, the character of the meet- 



