REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. LXXXI 



in the organization and maintenance of the institutes are not adequate 

 for an enterprise of such magnitude as this has become. The solution 

 of these problems will require much study, involving a comparison of 

 methods employed in the different States and countries. In its 

 national and international aspects there is, in my judgment, room for 

 much useful work by this Department which may well aid in this as 

 in other movements for the education of our farmers and the improve- 

 ment of our agriculture. While the Department has already done 

 something toward helping institute movements, I believe that it should 

 be put in a position to organize work in this line more thoroughly, and 

 I have therefore decided to ask Congress to make a special appropria- 

 tion of $5,000 to enable the Office of Experiment Stations to enlarge 

 its work with a view to giving definite aid and encouragement to the 

 farmers' institutes in the different States and Territories. This may 

 be done by collating and publishing information regarding the insti- 

 tute movement at home and abroad, by furnishing the institute workers 

 with the Department publications and information through corre- 

 spondence, by advising and assisting the institute managers in different 

 parts of the country with special reference to perfecting organization 

 and strengthening the work in weak places, and in general the Depart- 

 ment may act, through its Office of Experiment Stations, as a sort of 

 clearing house for the farmers' institute movement as it has done in 

 the case of the agricultural experiment stations; that is, it would be a 

 center for the focalization and dissemination of information and influ- 

 ences which may serve to develop farmers' institutes and make them a 

 more efficient means for the education of our farmers and the improve- 

 ment of our agriculture. 



I am convinced that the publications of the Department and the 

 experiment stations do not in themselves constitute all-sufficient means 

 for the dissemination of information on agricultural subjects among 

 our people. While the work of the Department and the stations has 

 already been so far disseminated and applied that it has made impor- 

 tant changes for the better in our agriculture, the spread of the influ- 

 ence of these institutions is comparatively slow because the means for 

 directly reaching the farmers which they now possess are inadequate. 

 The farmers' institutes may in a great measure supply this lack. When 

 properly organized, they will bring to the masses of our farmers the 

 information which they need to enable them to understand and apply 

 the results of the work of the Department and the stations, and will 

 impress upon them by practical illustrations and demonstrations the 

 benefits which advanced scientific knowledge may confer upon our 

 agriculture. Through the institutes, as in the case of other educa- 

 tional agencies, the living teacher coming in contact with the living 

 worker can produce results which it is hopeless to expect from printed 

 documents however well written and illustrated. 

 agr 1901 VI 



