56 THE farmer's education. 



valuable than the more general knowledge of the lecturers. 

 At least it has a value of a different kind, and is always more 

 quickly appreciated by those present. A farmer who will 

 forget in a week the greater part of the good points of a set 

 lecture from a stranger, will remember to his dying day the 

 relation of experience by a successful neighbor. He will also, 

 from time to time, have opportunity to talk it over, and to 

 observe the actual workings of the metliod advocated. If, 

 encouraged by the relation of his neiglibor, he is led on to 

 contribute his own experience on some special point, great 

 good has been done. If, as is commonly tlie case, there is 

 more or less disagreement, so much the better. When two 

 men disagree, a new center of intellectual activity has been 

 set up. If the disagreement is of sufficient importance to 

 interest the community at large, they are all likely to engage 

 in investigations upon their own account, and the influence 

 of the institute may be felt in the neighborhood for years, and 

 far longer than the effect of an address of a very able stranger 

 would have endured. When tlie disagreements are of slight 

 importance, the skill of the conductor is shown by the meas- 

 ure of his success in diverting the discussion without offense 

 to any. 



In this country the Farmers' Institute is a matter of state 

 concern, tlie Legislatures of most states making annual appro- 

 priations for their expenses. This fund is, in some cases, 

 expended by the State University, or Agricultural College, 

 and sometimes by State Commissioner or Boards of Agricul- 

 ture. In most states the majority of the institutes are crowded 

 into a few winter months, when the staff of the Agricultural 

 College is fully employed in college duties. In such cases- 

 the lecturers are mostly themselves farmers who have been 

 specially successful in some lines of agriculture, and who 

 are, besides, thoroughly endowed with strong common sense, 

 backed by wide experience. The lectures and discussions 

 at such institutes tend to take on what is called the "practical" 

 form, by which is meant a relation of experience, or observa- 

 tion and results, with the underlying scientific doctrine not 

 prominent. The paid lecturers, however, even if not highly 



