26 REPOET OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



and particularly up-to-date information regarding the progress that 

 is being made throughout the world in studying problems in agricul- 

 ture both at the experiment stations and on the farm. This has led to 

 a demand on the officers of our agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations for service at the farmers' institutes far beyond their ability to 

 meet. Indeed, this demand has often been so urgent that in attempt- 

 ing to meet it these officers have been obliged to sacrifice their duties 

 at the colleges and stations to the farmers' institute work. This has 

 called forth protest from the managers of these institutions and even 

 from the students, and has necessarily led to a restriction of the amount 

 of service which these officers are permitted to give to the institutes. 

 The colleges and stations have done and will continue to do much 

 to promote the farmers' institutes, but with the growth of the move- 

 ment they can not be relied upon to take relatively as large a 

 share in this enterprise as they have hitherto unless they have special 

 officers for this work. Moreover, even if the officers of the colleges 

 and stations could do much more work in the institutes than is possible 

 under present conditions, they could not fully meet the demand for 

 trained workers in these institutes. There is need of developing a 

 class of institute workers who shall combine successful practical expe- 

 rience and scientific knowledge of agriculture with the ability to 

 address large audiences of farmers in a way not only to hold their 

 attention, but also to impart to them definite information and instruc- 

 tion. Such men are now difficult to find, but without doubt the grow- 

 ing demand for them may betfilled by offering sufficient inducements 

 to young men to prepare themselves for a career as institute workers. 

 This involves the creation of a corps of institute workers who shall 

 receive sufficient salaries to induce them to make specific preparation 

 for their work and to enable them to keep the information in their 

 addresses up to date by studies pursued from year to year. This, of 

 course, can not be done without increased resources for the institutes, 

 but there is every reason to believe that the States will provide these 

 when once the farmers are sufficiently aroused to the importance of 

 this movement to insist upon the more perfect organization of insti- 

 tutes. At any rate, this problem of trained institute workers is a 

 very important one and much thought and study should be given by 

 our institute managers to its solution. 



Another problem of increasing importance relates to the ways and 

 means of reaching the masses of our farmers through the institutes. 

 On the supposition that half a million of farmers now annually attend 

 the institutes, it will be seen that out of the 10,000,000 farmers in the 

 United States only one in twenty is directly reached by the insti- 

 tutes or 9,500,000 are not reached. These are without doubt in the 

 main the most intelligent men in the business, and whatever good 

 they receive from the institutes is disseminated to a considerable extent 



