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THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Just here it may not be improper to state that for several 

 years a somewhat pecuHar situation had existed in Connecti- 

 cut in regard to farmers' institute work, viz : — three separate 

 organizations — ^the State Board of Agriculture, the State Dai- 

 rymen's Association and the Pomological Society — had been 

 conducting institutes more or less regularly, and each in its 

 own way and without any specific fund for the purpose. In 

 the absence of any state law requiring a definite amount of 

 institute work to be done (except in the case of the Board 

 of Agriculture, which was charged with the dissemination of 

 agricultural information generally) the work by the several or- 

 ganizations had been simply a volunteer one and not carried 

 on according to any well defined plan or system. 



In the fall of 1903 a few of the strongest advocates of 

 institute work, feeling that Connecticut was not keeping pace 

 with other states in this most important educational move- 

 ment and that a better system as well as a wiser economy of 

 money and effort was demanded, decided to call a confer- 

 ence of those interested in the subject. Accordingly a meeting 

 was held at the Capitol in Hartford on the loth of November, 

 and comprised about twenty delegates, representing the Board 

 of Agriculture, the Dairymen's Association and the Pomo- 

 logical Society. The whole subject of farmers' institutes in 

 Connecticut was freely discussed in an informal manner, the 

 disadvantages of the methods at present employed were point- 

 ed out and suggestions offered for the improvement of the 

 work. 



Inasmuch as each of the organizations represented were 

 working with practically the same object in view, viz : the bet- 

 terment of agriculture in the state, it was suggested that a 

 consolidation of interests, so far as possible, along institute 

 lines, would be advisable. 



To this end, the conference agreed to the appointment of 

 a committee consisting of Secretary Brown of the Board of 

 Agriculture. Secretary Noble of the Dairymen's Association 

 and Secretary Miles of the Pomological Society, and instruct- 

 ed this committee to devise a "combined plan" of institute 

 work for the coming winter and put the same in operation. 



