No. 4.] FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 219 



allow the meeting to drag or the interest to wane. With a 

 good speaker and a bright chairman an interesting institute 

 can be held, even though the attendance be small. But the 

 attendance 7nust not be small ; and, if the committee and 

 president or chairman do their full duty, the interest will 

 increase with each meeting. 



The Speakers. 



To them I will not attempt to dictate, and will only throw 

 out a few suggestions. Make your lectures so that all can 

 comprehend them. Use plain English for the common peo- 

 ple, for scientific terms are not easily understood or remem- 

 bered. Use the blackboard and charts in illustrating points 

 to be remembered. Show models and designs, if you would 

 have a new tool or contrivance understood. I have known a 

 man occupy ten minutes in trying to explain how a rude im- 

 plement was made, when by a half hour's work at home he 

 could have made a model that would have shown at a glance 

 a better description of it than he was able to give verbally, 

 and he would have had it for all his lecture work for the win- 

 ter, besides. Bring, if need be, an animal onto the stage, as 

 Dr. Twitchell does, to show the structural points. It is ob- 

 ject lessons that accomplish the best results in our teachings. 



That was a happy thought of Professor Fernald's in his 

 lecture at Taunton, when he mixed before the eyes of the 

 farmers present the new insecticide known as arsenate of 

 lead. After seeing a thing done once, it is very much easier 

 for one to attempt it than if only a verbal description be 

 given. ' 



Let our fruit men carry samples of fruit to exhibit at the 

 meetings, our market gardeners can show selected vege- 

 tables, the dairymen fine samples of butter and cheese, and 

 the housekeepers canned goods and cooking. The testing 

 of milk with a Babcock tester has entertained many an 

 audience, and will continue to do so. It should not be con- 

 sidered out of place for dealers to show new implements, 

 seeds, feed-stuffs or fertilizing material at a meeting of this 

 kind, any more than to advertise them in an agricultural 

 paper, and such exhibits should be encouraged. 



