FARMERS' INSTITUTES 97 



certain responsibility for the success of the insti- 

 tute. Meetings are arranged in series, and a 

 corps of two or three lecturers is sent by the 

 director upon a week's tour. One of these lec- 

 turers is called a conductor. He usually pre- 

 sides over the institute and keeps the discussions 

 in proper channels. Practice makes him an 

 expert. The state lecturers do most of the 

 talking. Local speakers do not bear any large 

 share in the programme. Questions are freely 

 asked, however. 



Ohio has an institute society in each county, 

 and this society largely controls its own insti- 

 tutes. The secretary of the State Board of 

 Agriculture, who has charge of the system, as- 

 signs dates and speakers to each institute. 

 After that everything is in the hands of the local 

 society, which chooses the topics to be presented 

 by the state speakers, advertises the meeting, 

 and the society president acts as presiding offi- 

 cer. Local speakers usually occupy half the 

 time. 



It does not seem as if either of these plans in 

 its entirety were ideal the one an extreme of 

 centralized control, the other an extreme of 

 local management. Yet in practice both plans 

 work well. No states in the Union have better 



