FARMERS' INSTITUTES 99 



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tion is bureaucracy; but in institute work, if 

 the management fails to provide for local needs, 

 and to furnish acceptable speakers, vigorous 

 protests soon correct the aberration. 



It has been stated that in America we have 

 no educational system that spontaneity is the 

 dominant feature of American education. This 

 is certainly true of farmers' institutes. So it 

 has transpired that numerous special features 

 have come in to use in various states features of 

 value and interest. It may be worth while to 

 suggest some of the more characteristic of these 

 features, without attempting an exact category. 



Formerly the only way in which women were 

 recognized at the institutes was by home and 

 social topics on the programme, though women 

 have always attended the meetings freely. Some 

 years ago Minnesota and Wisconsin added 

 women speakers to their list of state speakers, 

 and in the case of Wisconsin, at least, held a 

 separate session for women, simultaneously with 

 one or two sessions of the regular institute, with 

 demonstration lectures in cooking as the chief 

 features. Michigan holds "women's sections" 

 in connection with institutes, but general topics 

 are taken up. In Ontario separate women's 

 institutes have been organized. In Illinois a 



