28 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



department over which he presides may properly engage in this work 

 and usefully extend its operations in the interests of farmers' institutes. 

 Because of the intimate connection of these institutes with the gen- 

 eral movement for agricultural education and research represented by 

 the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations is the branch of the Department which may most natu- 

 rally be charged with the promotion of the interests of the farmers' 

 institutes, and this Office is being encouraged by the Secretary to 

 extend its efforts in this direction. From the study which we have 

 already made of this matter, we think we are able to see several ways 

 in which the Department may take definite action along this line. 

 The following are some of the ways in which it appears to us the 

 Department may help the institute: 



(1) By collating and publishing information regarding the institute 

 movement at home and abroad. This should be done in a regular way 

 and with definite reference to the needs of institute work in this 

 country. 



(2) By furnishing the institute workers with the Department publi- 

 cations and information through correspondence. This is alread}^ done 

 to a considerable extent, but may be more efficiently and thoroughly 

 done by having in the Department a regular agency for this work. 

 The institute workers would undoubtedly appeal to the Department 

 with much more freedom if they felt that their work was definitely 

 recognized there, as is the case with the agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations, whose officers are seeking the advice and assist- 

 ance of the Department more and more each year. The institute 

 workers should also be made to understand that they are very wel- 

 come to come to the Department, and by residence at Washington for 

 a longer or shorter time, have opportunities for acquiring information 

 through personal contact with the officers of the Department, the use 

 of its library, etc. 



(3) By advising and assisting institute managers with reference to 

 perfecting organization and strengthening the work in weak places. 

 This may be done by conferences between institute managers and the 

 other officers of the Department who are definitely studying the prob- 

 lems of the institute movement, largel} T through observations made in 

 the different States and Territories and foreign countries. It is in 

 this way that the Office of Experiment Stations has been able to do 

 much to help the experiment stations throughout the countiy. The 

 visits of the officers of the Department to the stations in the different 

 States, and the conferences held at Washington and at the meetings of 

 the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations have, it is believed, done much to systematize the work of 

 the stations and make them more efficient. In a similar way repre- 

 sentatives of this Office might visit the managers of the institutes and 



